International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 108–111

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Experimental study on the heat transfer enhancement of MWNT-water nanofluid in a

shell and tube heat exchanger ☆
Roghayeh Lotfi, Ali Morad Rashidi ⁎, Azadeh Amrollahi
Nanotechnology Research Center, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), West Blvd. Azadi Sports Complex, P.O.Box 14665-1998, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 14 October 2011 Heat transfer enhancement of multi-walled carbon natube(MWNT)/water nanofluid in a horizontal shell and
tube heat exchanger has been studied experimentally. Carbon nanotubes were synthesized by the use of cat-
Keywords: alytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) method over Co–Mo/MgO nanocatalyst. Obtained MWNTs were pu-
Nanofluids rified using a three stage method. COOH functional groups were inserted for making the nanotubes
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) hydrophilic and increasing the stability of the nanofluid. The results indicate that heat transfer enhances in
Heat transfer enhancement
the presence of multi-walled nanotubes in comparison with the base fluid.
Shell and tube heat exchanger
© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Nowadays high prices of energy motivate industry to apply
energy saving methods as much as possible in their facilities. Heat
transfer enhancement techniques are one of the most important tools
to save energy in different processes. Use of solid particles in conven-
tional fluids, because of their higher thermal conductivity, has been
considered for decades to enhance heat transfer. But in practice, prob-
lems like fouling, sedimentation and increased pressure drop, because
of suspending these particles, reduce the interest of industry to this
heat transfer technique.
In recent years significant advances in nanomaterials technology,
has made it possible to overcome these problems by producing desir-
able particles in nanometer size ranges. Nanoparticle suspensions in
fluids make a new innovative category of fluids, called nanofluids.
This kind of fluids are now of great interest not only for modifying
heat transfer performance of fluids, but also for improving other dif-
ferent characteristics such as mass transfer and rheological properties
of fluids [1-4].
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted much attention because of
their extraordinary thermal, mechanical and electrical properties. The
multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were first produced by
Ijima in 1991 by using arc discharge method [5], while the single-
walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were synthesized in 1993 [6]. Use
of CNT nanofluids for increasing heat transfer has been investigated in
different experimental and theoretical research works [7-9].
While in practice heat exchangers are so common in heat transfer
processes, most of the studies of nanofluids are limited to constant tem-
perature or constant heat flux boundary conditions at wall of cylindrical
☆ Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz.
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rashidiam@ripi.ir (A.M. Rashidi).
tubes. Some researchers have evaluated the effect of adding nanoparti-
cles to base fluid in heat exchangers [10-13]. For instance Farajollahi et
al. used Al2O3 and TiO2 nanofluids in a shell and tube heat exchanger.
They reported nanofluids cause a significant enhancement of heat
transfer enhancement characteristics in comparison with the base
fluids [13].
In the present work multi-walled carbon nanotubes were synthe-
sized over Co-Mo/MgO nanocatalyst in a fluidized bed reactor. After
purification they were functionalized and the nanofluid was pro-
duced. As the main objective, the heat transfer characteristics of
MWNTs/water nanofluids were investigated in a shell and tube heat
exchanger. Since shell and tube heat exchangers are very popular in
chemical processes, any improvement in their performance seems
to be essential.
2. Experimental investigation
2.1. Carbon nanotube synthesis and purification
In general carbon nanotubes can be produced by the use of three
different methods which includes chemical vapor deposition (CVD),
laser ablation and arc discharge method. Among these methods,
CVD method has been known as the most suitable method especially
for large-scale production of CNTs, since it is simpler and it has higher
efficiency and lower cost [14-17].
In the present work Co–Mo/MgO nanocatalyst has been selected
as the catalyst of carbon nanotube growth by CVD, because usually
MgO support can be removed easier than other supports. For prevent-
ing erosion of catalysts inside the fluidized bed reactor, they were
shaped in spherical beads form. By the use of a mixture of hydrogen
and nitrogen flow the reduction process was performed and then,
the methane or natural gas flow, as the feed of the reaction, was intro-
duced into the reactor. Fig. 1 shows the experimental set up used for

0735-1933/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2011.10.002
 R. Lotfi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 108–111
Nomenclature
A heat transfer area (m 2)
Cp fluid specific heat (J kg − 1 K − 1)
m mass flowrate (kg/s)
Q heat transfer rate (W)
T temperature (˚C)
U overall heat transfer coefficient (W m − 2°C − 1)
Greek letters
ΔTlm logarithmic mean temperature difference (°C)
Φ volume fraction
ρ density (kg m − 3)
Subscripts
eff effective
f fluid, primary phase
p particle, secondary phase
carbon nanotubes growth. The reactor with a height of 1400 mm and
an inner diameter of 20 mm is made of quartz. A porous quartz disc
distributes the gas and holds the nanocatalyst particles. The reactor
is placed in a programmable vertical furnace. Scanning Electron Mi-
croscopy (SEM) and Tunneling Electron Microscopy (TEM) images
of MWNTs are shown in Fig. 2.
Note that in the CVD method, nanotubes grow in catalyst tips, so
usually in CNT bodies, metal particles are observed. Moreover impu-
rities like amorphous carbon or other nano-structured carbons like
carbon nanofibers are common in CNTs. To use high-purity nanotubes
containing minimal amounts of residual support material, catalyst
metal and extraneous carbon, it is a necessary to perform a purifica-
tion procedure.
After optimization, it was resulted that the sample purified by a
three-step process including oxidation, HCl treatment and HNO3
treatment has the best quality. At first the oxidation procedure was
performed at a temperature of 300 °C for 30 min. Then the CNTs
were dissolved in 3.5 molar HNO3 and mixed at 60 °C for 3 h. After fil-
tration, the resulting mixture was washed with distilled water to
have a neutral pH. Then HCl treatment was implemented. The
obtained CNT was mixed in a 6 molar hydrochloric acid at 50 °C for
16 h and the washing step was repeated as previous acid wash. As
the final step CNTs were dried at 120 °C for 10 h.
To understand the quality of carbon nanotubes, Raman Spectra is
applied. In this spectra, the D band at about 1340 cm − 1 wave length
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental setup for CNT production.
109
is assigned to effects of symmetry-lowering, like defects or the pres-
ence of the amorphous carbon in the CNT structure, while the G
band at about 1580 cm − 1 is attributed to a single crystallite of graph-
ite. Moreover a G′ band which appears in about 2690 cm − 1, indicates
the overtone of D-band. Usually the ration of G band intensity to D
band intensity (IG/ID) is used as a parameter for evaluation of prod-
ucts quality. The more values of this ratio show higher quality of the
produced carbon nanotubes. The Raman spectra of as prepared and
purified MWNTs are shown in Fig. 3. As it is obvious from this figure,
IG/ID ratio increases significantly after purification step.
2.2. Nanofluid preparation
Generally for the production of nanofluids, two different methods
are applied: single-step and two-step. In the former the nanoparticles
are prepared by the use of a liquid chemical or physical vapor deposi-
tion technique, simultaneous with the preparation of the nanofluid.
Since in this method processes like drying and dispersion are avoided,
so the agglomeration of the nanoparticles in the nanofluid is minimal
and as a result the fluid is more stable. Unfortunately the disadvan-
tage of one-step technique is that it is limited to just low vapor pres-
sure fluids. On the other hand in the latter one, two-step method, in
the first step the nanoparticles are synthesized separately as dry pow-
der and in the second step they are dispersed in the base fluid. This
technique has the advantage of using a wide range of nanoparticles
and base fluids without having the limitations mentioned in the pre-
vious method. But the agglomeration and stability of the nanofluids
are the problems which should be solved.
For the cases like carbon nanotubes, there are two essential solu-
tions for this problem, using surfactants or functionalization. Al-
though many surfactants like sodiumlaurate, sodiumdodecyl sulfate
and gum Arabia are used for modification of the hydrophobic surface
of CNTs and make them more stable suspensions, but unfortunately
these surfactants have negative effects on thermal conductivity of
nanofluids. As a result the second method, functionalization of carbon
nanotubes is applied in the present study.
To add COOH functional groups to the MWNTS, carbon nanotubes
were dispersed in deionized water by the use of an ultrasonic water
bath for 60 min at ambient temperature. Then potassium persulfate
was added to the flask and the pH of the reaction system controlled
by potassium hydroxide solution. The flask with a reflux condenser
and a magnetic stir bar was kept at 85 °C for 3 h, and then it was
cooled to room temperature [18].
2.3. Experimental setup
Fig. 4 shows the experimental setup for the investigating convec-
tive heat transfer characteristics of water-based FMWNT(functiona-
lized multi-walled nanotubes) nanofluids flowing through a
horizontal shell and tube heat exchanger. The system mainly consists
of two flow loops for nanofluid and coolant fluid. It contains a shell
and tube heat exchanger, heating section, a nanofluid pump (HV-
77921-40), a nanofluid reservoir tank (3 L), circulator bath (Poly-
Science, model 9712, USA) and thermocouples (K-type). For heat
loss reduction to the surrounding, the heat exchanger, pipe lines
and heating section are thermally insulated.
The test section is the heat exchanger, in which nanofluid passes
through 14 tubes with 7 mm inside diameter and 580 mm length,
while the coolant flows through the shell-side with a 101 mm inside
diameter. The inlet and outlet parts of heat exchanger were equipped
with four K type thermocouples. Measurement error in K type ther-
mocouples for determining fluid temperatures was ±0.1 °C.
The heating section consists of a horizontal copper tube with
11.42 mm inner diameter and 100 mm length. The tube surface is
electrically heated by the use of an AC power supply for generating
constant heat flux.
110 R. Lotfi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 108–111

Fig. 2. A) Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and B) Tunneling Electron Microscopy (TEM) images of synthesized MWNTs.

3. Results and discussions The general relation for heat transfer is as follows:

After preparation of nanofluid with a concentration of 0.015 Q ¼ mCp ðTo −Ti Þ ð1Þ
weight percent, the heat transfer measurement tests were performed.
The concentration is selected in a low value to present that the exis-
tence of only very low amounts of nanotubes can influence and en- If we assume that the nanoparticles are well dispersed inside the
hance the heat transfer rate. base-fluid, the effective physical properties of the mixture like densi-
ty and specific heat can be evaluated using some two-phase fluids
formulas like:

ρeff ¼ ð1−φÞρf þ φρp ð2Þ

     
Cp ¼ ð1−φÞ Cp þ φ Cp ð3Þ
eff f p

On the other hand, the heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger can
be expressed as follows:

Q ¼ Ui Ai ΔTlm ð4Þ

The results were obtained under two different power of heating

section for 280 W and 630 W. Figs. 5 and 6 describe the overall heat
Fig. 3. Raman spectra of MWNTs before and after purification. transfer coefficients of the nanofluid and base fluid (water) for the
mentioned powers. As it is obvious from the figures the presence of
multi-walled nanotubes enhances the heat transfer rate in a shell
T3
Shell and Tube Exchanger
and tube heat exchanger.
T2 T1

T4

Circulator
Heating System

A.C.

Nanofluid
Reservior Tank

Pump
Fig. 5. Comparison between the measured overall heat transfer coefficient for water
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of experimental setup for heat transfer measurement. and nanofluid for Q = 280 W.
 R. Lotfi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 108–111
Fig. 6. Comparison between the measured overall heat transfer coefficient for water
and nanofluid for Q = 630 W.
4. Conclusion
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes were synthesized by the use of
chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method over Co–Mo/MgO nano-
catalyst. MWNTs were then purified using a three stage method
consisting of oxidation, HCl treatment and HNO3 treatment. To make
the nanotubes hydrophilic and increase the stability of the nanofluid,
COOH functional groups were inserted. Heat transfer enhancement of
multi-walled carbon natube (MWNT)/water nanofluid in a horizontal
shell and tube heat exchanger has been investigated experimentally.
The results shows heat transfer enhancement in the presence of multi-
walled nanotubes in comparison with the base fluid.
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