7.5 Appendix 7.5.

1 The Number of Tubes in Condenser

Where; Q U A Tm = heat transferred per unit time, W = the overall heat transfer equipment, W/m2.oC = the heat transfer surface area, m2 = the mean temperature difference.

The heat transferred over unit time, Q is -185.71 kW The overall heat transfer coefficient, U is 600 W/m2.oC The calculation in determining the Tm is as follows:

( )

Assumed counter-flow heat exchanger, where; 1 2 Thi/o Tci/o = Thi Tco = 195 oC = Tho Tci = 30 oC = Temperature of hot fluid inlet/outlet = Temperature of cold fluid inlet/outlet

Thi = 275 oC

Tho = 60 oC

CONDENSER
Tco = 80 oC Tci = 30 oC

The value of Tm that is calculated is 88.15 oC. As the heat exchanger that is used consists of one shell pass and two or more tube passes:

From graph, based on the following values of S and R, the correction factor, Ft = 0.75. The new value of Tm is as follows:

The value of Tm is substitute into the following equation:

The number of tubes can be calculated by dividing the area of heat transfer by the area of tubes. The tube that is used in the industrial condenser of methanol production plant is a 20 mm outer diameter, 16 mm inner diameter and 4.88 m long tubes made out of stainless steel. The number of tubes is calculated as follows

7.5.2 The Number of Rows of Tube The number of rows of tube that is needed in the industrial condenser of methanol production plant can be determined by simply based on the overall heat transfer coefficient, U of coolant and condensate that is used in the condenser (Couper, 2005). The overall heat transfer coefficient, U based on condensate, methanol:

The overall heat transfer coefficient, U based on the coolant used (water):

The overall heat transfer coefficient obtained is correlated based on the graph that is shown in fig 7.3. The value is correlated based on the temperature approach and the cooling range temperature. The number of rows that is suggested is 6 as more row numbers can increase the rate of heat transfer.

Fig 7.3: The graph used in determining number of rows