ACADEMIA SUMMARIES

Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers Using

Cooling Water
The original paper contains 31 sections, with 10 passages identified by our machine learning
algorithms as central to this paper.

Paper Summary
SUMMARY PASSAGE 1

Introduction/Purpose
Many shell and tube heat exchangers use cooling water. There are a number of design
criteria/principles, peculiar to the use of cooling water, which should be considered if the best design
is to be obtained for such a unit.

SUMMARY PASSAGE 2

Quality Of Cooling Water

Properly treated cooling water should be used for shell and tube heat exchangers. Environmental
constraints have largely ruled out the use of the synergized chromate systems which were the
preferred option before the mid 1980s. Current systems generally involve the use of zinc phosphate,
but increasingly tight constraints on discharge are likely to prohibit these also in the future.

SUMMARY PASSAGE 3

Cooling Water On The Shell Side

Where it is necessary for cooling water to be contained in the shell side of a heat exchanger, a
number of precautions/considerations should be taken into account. These are outlined in sub-
clauses 7.1 to 7.6.
SUMMARY PASSAGE 4

Horizontal Or Vertical Shell Orientation

Experience indicates that in general, there will be fewer problems of fouling and corrosion in
exchangers with cooling water on the shell side if the shell is arranged horizontally rather than
vertically. This is because dirt deposits tend to fall to the bottom of a horizontal shell, away from the
tubes, whereas in a vertical shell deposits occur in contact with the tubes on the lower tube plate and
on each baffle.

SUMMARY PASSAGE 5

Low Water Velocity

Increasing the total flow of fresh cooling water to a heat exchanger is not always possible or desirable
(see 11.2) but even with a fixed quantity the designer has several options:

SUMMARY PASSAGE 6

Economics
The costs of cooling water systems and their associated heat exchangers are normally optimized by
choosing a high return water temperature from the exchanger, provided the process duties are above
50-60°C. Pollution from the cooling tower plume usually limits the return water temperature to the
range 30-35°C, but often individual items can be beneficially designed with return temperatures
above this, if water quality allows.

SUMMARY PASSAGE 7

Operating Variables
Heat exchangers cooled with water are usually designed for maximum plant throughputs with the
cooling water inlet temperature at its peak summer value (typically 21-23°C) and the heat
exchanger in its anticipated most fouled state. However, the actual operating conditions will vary from
these values. In winter the cooling water inlet temperature may be only 10°C or less; when first
installed the exchanger can be expected to have a low value of fouling resistance; the plant is
required to operate under turndown conditions.
SUMMARY PASSAGE 8

Heat Load Control

In many cases the plant performance is insensitive to the previously stated variations. In these cases
the cooling water flow can be set to the design value (which will ensure an adequate water velocity)
and left at that value. However, there are occasions when it is necessary to control the heat load on
an exchanger (e.g. when the heat load on a partial condenser is being used to control the pressure of
a distillation column).

SUMMARY PASSAGE 9

General
(b) A secondary cooling circuit with properly treated non-fouling coolant. This is cooled in a secondary
heat exchanger, designed for constant (high) cooling tower water velocity. The temperature of the
secondary coolant is controlled by by-passing it round the auxiliary exchanger.

SUMMARY PASSAGE 10

Maintenance
Consideration should be given to the storage of the spare after cleaning. Chemical cleaning cannot
be guaranteed to remove all cooling water deposits, especially on the shell side. The remaining
material is difficult to dry out completely, and acts as a potential source of corrosion during storage.