Looking Inside... Plate-Fin versus Coil-Wound Heat Exchangers
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Contents. 3
Introduction
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Overview
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Plate-fn heat exchangers Features
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Coil-wound heat exchangers Plate-fn versus coil-wound heat exchangers Outlook
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Attachments Plate-fn heat exchanger structure (Attachment A) Plate-fn heat exchanger abrication (Attachment B) Brie comparison (Attachment C)
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Introduction. The abrication acility o The Linde Group is the Engineering Division, a competent and well-known supplier o two special types o cryogenic heat exchangers with an emphasis on LNG production and cryogenic gas processing. Plate-in as well as coil-wound heat exchangers are abricated at Linde´s acility in Schalchen. Here, in the south-east o Germany, some 700 highly qualiied people are employed. Heat exchangers have been produced in various orms here or decades. The speciic technical eatures are outlined and a technical comparison o coil-wound and plate-in heat exchanger is provided.
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A brazed plate-in heat exchanger is a stack o alternating lat and corrugated plates.
Plate-in heat exchanger
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Coil-wound heat exchanger
Overview. Plate-in and coil-wound heat exchangers are key components o cryogenic process plants worldwide. With more than one century o experience Linde is one o the major players in this business. Linde is the only company abricating both types o heat exchangers in its own acilities.
As o today, approx. 5000 plate-in heat exchanger blocks and some 1000 coil-wound heat exchangers have been abricated by Linde or a wide range o applications. Due to a dearth o available inormation about plate-in and coil-wound heat exchangers, these items requently have the status o black boxes in process plants. The objective o this paper is to open these black boxes and to have a look inside.
Furthermore this paper aims to provide a brie comparison o the two types o heat exchangers in order to amiliarize plant owners with the typical eatures.
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Plate-in heat exchangers. General arrangement A brazed plate-in heat exchanger is a stack o alternating lat and corrugated plates. The corrugations (ins) orm the low channels or the diverse process luids. Each process stream occupies a certain number o passages within the stack. These are collected by hal-pipe headers and nozzles to single point connections on the inlet and the outlet o the respective process stream. In this way, up to 10 process luids can exchange heat in only one heat exchanger block. Fig.1 is a sketch o the various types o ins. Materials and design temperature Usually this type o heat exchanger is made o aluminium alloys 3003 (blocks) and 5083 (all attachments). It is important to know that with these standard materials the upper design temperature is limited to +65°C due to code requirements. Fins In order to meet the required perormance, Linde can select the appropriate in out o about 50 dierent in types. In general a distinction is made between perorated ins and serrated ins. Serrated ins have higher heat transer coeicients than perormated ins. However, serrated ins are more prone to ouling and result in higher pressure drop.
Fabrication In order to bond the loose stack o plates and ins to a rigid block, vacuum brazing is used. This sophisticated process means spanning the loose stack together and heating it in a vacuum urnace up to a temperature o about 600°C. It should be understood that this temperature is very near the melting point o the aluminium base materials. The iller material is clad by rolling on both sides o each parting sheet. The ins however are pure aluminium alloy without any cladding. Ater the vacuum brazing the blocks are completed by welding all the attachments such as hal-pipe headers, nozzles, support brackets and liting trunnions to the block. Please reer to Attachment B on page 13). Beneits Vacuum brazed plate-in heat exchangers made o aluminium oer a number o advantages: They are extremely compact due to the us e o aluminium and highly eicient ins. The “ heating surace density“ can be greater than 1000 m²/m³. Thus this type o heat exchanger is perectly suitable or installations which require compact design. The wide selection o heat transer ins combines high heat transer rates with low pressure drops (i.e. low energy consumption) in tailor made heat exchangers. The ability to combine up to 10 process streams in only one heat exchanger system can eliminate the need or multiple heat exchanger arrangements and the
interconnecting piping. The use o high strength aluminium alloy results in light weight units thus reducing drastically the oundation and support requirements.
Knowing the limits Knowing the technical advantages as well as the corresponding limits o a plate-in heat exchanger helps to make correct procurement decisions and to avoid later disappointments and diiculties. Due to their arrangement as a large and rigid aluminium block, and considering the small gaps inside, this type o heat exchanger cannot be recommended or cases o operation such as : – high temperature gradients (i.e. thermal shocks) – high temperature dierences between the cold and the warm process streams – process streams containing particles or suseptible to severe ouling – cyclic loads (pressure and temperature) – service which is known to be corrosive to aluminium Naturally Linde will advise a potential user whether a plate-in heat exchanger is recommendable or a speciied application or not.
Fig.1
Perorated ins
Serrated ins
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Plate-in and coil-wound heat exchangers are key components o cryogenic process plants worldwide.
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Coil-wound heat exchangers. History Coil-wound heat exchangers have been manuactured by Linde since the early days, when Carl von Linde liqueied air on an industrial scale or the irst time in Munich, Germany in May 1885. Improvements in aluminium welding technology in the late 1950s made it possible to change rom rather expensive and heavy copper to the cheaper and lighter all-aluminium-designs. More than one thousand coil-wound heat exchangers or various application and in diverse materials such as stainless steel, special alloys, copper and aluminium, with heating suraces o up to 20,000 m² and unit weights o up to 170 metric tons have been abricated since.
General arrangement A coil-wound heat exchanger is, in general, a tubular heat exchanger; however, the bundle does not consist o not using a straight tubes. Tubes o relatively long length and small diameter are wound in alternating directions around a centre pipe (the so called mandrel). In parallel a pressure vessel shell is prepared and the complete tube bundle is inserted. All single tubes start and terminate in tubesheets which are integral parts o the pressure vessel shell.
Tube bundle beore insertion into the pressure vessel shell
Features o Linde‘s coil-wound heat exchangers in LNG baseload plants Flexible tube bundle Due to the lexible tube bundle arrangement these heat exchangers can bear temperature gradients and dierences clearly exceeding the limits o other heat exchanger types (e.g. platein heat exchangers). No bundle sagging Over the speciied design lie no considerable bundle sagging is to be expected. This is due to Linde´s sophisticated bundle support system.
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Best liquid distribution Optimal liquid distribution o the shell side 2-phase stream over the whole cross section o the bundle is achieved by internal phase separation and special liquid distribution systems. The latest liquid distributor design minimises the liquid hold-up on top o the bundles, thus reducing negative thermal eects during trip cases. Tube arrangement The tube bundles are designed and abricated to be vibration-proo and sel-draining. Tailor made materials The pressure vessel shell is typically made o aluminium alloy 5083. For the tubes, special aluminium alloy and a non-standard (but approved) abrication procedure is used or tube manuacturing.
Complete coil-wound heat exchangers during installation on site
Supporting the tube bundle Each tube bundle is reely suspended rom a special support system on top o each bundle. Thus shrinkage and expansion o the tube bundles due to rapid temperature changes during start-up or shut-down occur with minimum stresses between the tube bundle and the shell. The support system is designed to carry the weight o the tube bundles, the luids and the pressure drops. Eliminating by-pass streams Each tube bundle is wrapped into a “shroud“ which is seal welded on the upper side o the shell to avoid any rerigerant passing between the tube bundle and the shell. In case o tube ailure the leaking tube can be easily repaired by plugging the concerned tube. In order to acilitate such repairs and to minimize the shut-down time the installation o suitable access holes is oreseen.
The tube bundles are designed and abricated to be vibration-proo and sel-draining.
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Linde cold boxes in a LNG peak shaving plant
Plate-in versus coil-wound heat exchangers. Attachment C (page 14) provides an overview o the major dierences between plate-in and coil-wound heat exchangers. The most important eature o the plate-in heat exchanger is the compact design. The coil-wound heat exchanger´s deining characteristic is its intrinsic robustness. The extreme compactness o the plate-in heat exchangers becomes obvious when one knows that both o t he cold boxes1) shown in this picture are designed or the same perormance. These two cold boxes are installed in an LNG peak shaving plant in South Arica. The small coldbox on the let side contains a plate-in heat exchanger. The much taller cold box on the right side contains a coil-wound heat exchanger.
Presently this peak shaving plant is operated using the coil wound heat exchanger with outstanding results regarding reliability and turn-down behaviour. For LNG baseload applications it is important to know that typically the coil-wound heat exchangers are designed standing “cold side up warm side down“. This is another dierence in comparison with plate-in heat exchangers. This arrangement allows proper 2-phase distribution o rerigerant vaporizing downwards on the shell side o a coil-wound heat exchanger. It is well suited or turndown operation.
A plate-in heat exchanger in similar service usually vaporizes upwards. It requires a lot o know-how and experience to design such a plate-in heat exchanger or turn-down operation. I the design does not consider this properly, the vaporization in turn-down can create luid luctuations causing cyclic thermal and mechanical stresses. 1)
A “cold box“ is understood to be a carbon steel casing containing various process equipment like heat exchangers, columns, instrumentation, all interconnecting piping, etc. The thermal insulation is typically expanded perlite.
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Outlook. Plate-in heat exchangers Since Linde has entered into the business o vacuum brazed plate-in heat exchangers in 1981, block sizes and design pressures have increased step-wise. With a new vacuum urnace recently commissioned Linde is now in position to serve the market with single plate-in heat exchanger blocks o about 1.5 x 3 x 8 m in modular construction. Such extremely large blocks drastically reduce the need or interconnecting piping and subsequently the danger o maledistribution between parallel blocks. At the same time the maximum design pressures have reached a level o about 100 bar-g. However it is important to know that the maximum possible design pressure depends on the respective block size. In order to urther increase the eiciency and compactness o plate-in heat exchangers new types o ins are being developed applying e.g. smaller in pitches, etc.
Coil-wound heat exchangers Linde‘s own test acilities and the R&D department are the major sources o new ideas or improvements. The development o new technical eatures is driven by the valuable eedback rom plant operators and lessons learnt on current jobs.
The installation o coil-wound heat exchangers on loating barges is another challenge. The exposure o the tall heat exchanger structures to the corresponding motions requires special measures. Linde is thoroughly investigating this issue, applying new ideas and experience to inding the optimal solution.
For Linde‘s coil-wound heat exchangers in LNG baseload applications o the required perormance demands are continually increasing. Linde has already brought the corresponding developments on the way in order to be able to oer the most compact and highly eicient heat exchangers.
The extremely compact design o the plate-in heat exchangers versus the inherently robust design o the coil-wound heat exchangers.
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Plate-fn heat exchanger structure (Attachment A)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Block Header Nozzle Width Stacking height Length Passage outlet Cover sheet Parting sheet Heat transer fn Distribution fn Side bar End bar
With a new vacuum urnace recently commissioned, Linde is now in position to serve the market with single plate-in heat exchanger blocks o about 1.5 x 3 x 8 m in modular construction.
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Parting sheets, cover sheets
Fins
Side bars
Raw materials
Raw materials
Raw materials
Measuring, cutting
Stamping, measuring, cutting
Measuring, cutting
Washing
Washing
Washing
Stacking
Vaccum brazing urnace
Header and nozzles
Raw materials
Measuring, cutting
Raw materials
Raw materials
Measuring, cutting
Assembly
Completion o heat exchanger
Testing
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Brie comparison (Attachment C)
Plate-in heat exchanger piped in cold box
Plate-fn heat exchanger
Coil-wound heat exchanger
Features
Extremely compact Up to ~10 streams
Extremely robust Compact
Fluids
Very clean Non-corrosive
Heating surace
300 - 1000 m²/m³
50 - 150 m²/m³
Materials
Al
Al, SS, CS etc.
Design temperatures
-269°C to +65°C
all
Applications
smooth operation limited installation space
temp. gradients temp. dierences
Prices
~25 - 35 % (without maniolds / steel casings)
100 %
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With more than one century o experience, Linde is one o the major players in this business and the only company abricating both types o heat exchangers in its own acilities.
Coil-wound heat exchanger
Designing Processes - Constructing Plants. Linde´s Engineering Division continuously develops extensive process engineering know-how in the planning, project management and construction o turnkey industrial plants.
The range o products comprises:
− − − − − − − − − −
Petrochemical plants LNG and natural gas processing plants Synthesis gas plants Hydrogen plants Gas processing plants Adsorption plants Air separation plants Cryogenic plants Biotechnological plants Furnaces or petrochemical plants and refneries
Linde and its subsidiaries manuacture:
− − − − − −
Packaged units, cold boxes Coil-wound heat exchangers Plate-fn heat exchangers Cryogenic standard tanks Air heated vaporizers Spiral-welded aluminium pipes
More than 3,800 plants worldwide document the leading position of the Engineering Division in i nternational plant construction. 9 0 / e . 2 . 3 / G N L
Engineering Division head oice: Linde AG Engineering Division Pullach, Germany Phone: +49.(0)89.7445-0 Engineering Division Linde Impianti Italia S.p.A. Fax: +49.(0)89.7445-4908 Schalchen Plant in
[email protected] Rome, Italy Tacherting, Germany Phone +39.066.5613-1 Phone +49.8621.85-0 Fax +39.066.5613-200 Fax +49.8621.85-6620
[email protected] [email protected] Linde Kryotechnik AG Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH Pungen, Switzerland Dresden, Germany Phone +41.52.3040-555 Phone +49.351.250-30 Fax +41.52.3040-550 Fax +49.351.250-4800 in
[email protected] [email protected] Cryo AB Selas-Linde GmbH Göteborg, Sweden Pullach, Germany Phone +46.3164-6800 Phone +49.89.7447-470 Fax +46.3164-2220 Fax +49.89.7447-4717
[email protected] [email protected] Linde Process Plants, Inc. Cryostar SAS Tulsa, OK, U.S.A. Hésingue, France Phone +1.918.4771-200 Phone +33.389.70-2727 Fax +1.918.4771-100 Fax +33.389.70-2777
[email protected] in
[email protected] Selas Fluid Processing Corp. Linde CryoPlants Ltd. Blue Bell, PA, U.S.A. Aldershot, Great Britain Phone +1.610.834-0300 Phone +44.1.252.3313-51 Fax +1.610.834-0473 Fax +44.1.252.3430-62 john.mcdermott@selasluid.com in
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Linde Engenharia do Brasil Ltda. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Phone +55.21.3545-2255 Fax +55.21.3545-2257
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Linde Engineering India Pvt. Ltd. Vadodara, Gujarat, India Phone +91.265.3056-789 Fax +91.265.2335-213
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Linde Process Plants (Pty.) Ltd. Johannesburg, South Arica Phone +27.11.490-0513 Fax +27.11.490-0412
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Linde Engineerig Far East, Ltd. Seoul, South Korea Phone +82.2789-6697 Fax +82.2789-6698
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Linde-KCA Russia Branch Moscow, Russia Phone +7.495.646-5242 Fax +7.795.646-5243
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Linde Engineering Division Bangkok, Thailand Phone +66.2636-1998 Fax +66.2636-1999
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Linde Arabian Contracting Co. Ltd. Riyadh, Kingdom o Saudi Arabia Phone +966.1.419-1193 Fax +966.1.419-1384
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Linde Engineering Co. Ltd. Dalian, P.R. o China Phone +86.411.39538-800 Fax +86.411.39538-855
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Linde Engineering Middle East LLC Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Phone +971.2.4477-631 Fax +971.2.4475-953
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Linde Engineering Co. Ltd. Hangzhou, P.R. o China Phone +86.571.87858-222 Fax +86.571.87858-200
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Engineering Division headquarters: Linde AG Engineering Division, Dr.-Carl-von-Linde-Str. 6-14, 82049 Pullach, Germany Phone +49.89.7445-0, Fax +49.89.7445-4908, E-Mail: in
[email protected], www.linde.com
Linde Engineering Division Beijing Representative Oice Beijing, P.R. o China Phone +86.10.6437-7014 Fax +86.10.6437-6718
[email protected] Linde AG Taiwan Branch Engineering Division Taipei, Taiwan Phone +886.2.2786-3131 Fax +886.2.2652-5871
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