Heat exchange – Casing or tank enclosed conduit assembly – With distinct flow director in casing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-15
2003-03-25
Bennett, Henry (Department: 3743)
Heat exchange
Casing or tank enclosed conduit assembly
With distinct flow director in casing
C165S140000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06536513
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to an apparatus for heat exchange between fluids and/or for mixing of fluids, those fluids being different and/or at different temperatures.
In many process operations there are heat exchangers involving transfer of heat from a first to a second fluid. The exchange may be to cool exhaust gases from a combustion reaction and/or to preheat gases prior to reaction. The two fluids may move in countercurrent or cocurrent directions and may move with one fluid in a core and the other in a surrounding shell, or one may move in a tube or tubes passing thorough a chamber containing the other fluid. In EPA-450872 a compact reformer has reaction tubes for an exothermic reaction inside a chamber packed with catalyst for an endothermic reaction. The exiting endothermic reaction products in the chamber preheat the exothermic reactants passing in a core and surrounding annulus inside the chamber. In EPA-643618 and EPA-703823 the endothermic reaction occurs in the tubes and the exothermic reaction in the chamber, and the exothermic reactants are preheated by passage in annuli surrounding the exit endothermic tubes. In EPA-703823 one preheated exothermic reactant, usually air, passes into the reaction chamber through a perforated distribution plate, which forms a wall of air which moves up the chamber until it meets the preheated fuel outlets at which time autoignition occurs to produce flames which pass around and along the endothermic tubes to effect reaction therein. The exiting combustion gases from the exothermic reaction preheat the incoming endothermic reactant.
The above arrangements do not give as uniform preheating of the exothermic reactants as may be desired, nor as uniform a temperature distribution of the air entering the reaction chamber as may be desired.
The present invention concerns apparatus for and methods of obtaining greater uniformity in the preheating and/or temperature distribution.
The present invention provides a heat exchanger, which comprises a plurality of first heat exchange tubes extending through the exchanger, and through a plurality of laterally extending heat exchanger chambers, each chamber having at least one entry from a first chamber and at least one exit to a second axially adjacent chamber, and each chamber having a plurality of transverse interconnecting zones, each of which is defined by at least two of said tubes, and at least one first zone has an entry to said first chamber and at least one second zone, different from said first zone, has an exit to said second chamber.
The present invention provides a heat exchanger, which comprises a plurality of first heat exchange tubes extending through the exchanger and through a plurality of laterally extending heat exchanger chambers comprising a first chamber and a second and third chamber axially adjacent thereto and on either side thereof, each chamber being separated from each adjacent chamber by a partition, in which are a plurality of discrete openings, and each chamber having a plurality of transverse interconnecting zones, each of which is defined by at least three of said tubes, a first partition and a second partition opposing said first partition, and with said openings in different zones and a passage through said zones between at least one first opening in a first partition and at least one second opening in said first partition, and at least a third and a fourth opening in said second partition.
The present invention also provides a process for effecting heat exchange between a first fluid passing through a vessel and a second fluid in a plurality of first tubes extending through said vessel and through a plurality of laterally extending heat exchange chambers, each chamber having a plurality of transverse interconnecting zones, which comprises passing at least one stream of said first fluid into a first chamber, effecting contact of said fluid and more than one of said tubes and then passing a stream of said fluid subsequent to said contact from said first chamber into a second chamber axially adjacent to said first chamber, so that said fluid passes through said chambers in an axial and lateral direction.
The present invention also provides a process for effecting heat exchange in a vessel between a first fluid passing through a plurality of laterally extending heat exchange chambers in said vessel in mutual axial relation in said vessel and a second fluid passing in a plurality of first tubes, which extend through said vessel and through said chambers, each chamber having a plurality of transverse interconnecting zones, which comprises passing at least two streams of said first fluid into different zones in a first chamber, effecting contact of each of said first streams and more than one of said tubes to give second and third streams, mixing said second and third stream in a different zone to produce a mixed stream and passing said mixed stream from said different zone into a second chamber axially adjacent to said first chamber, so that said fluid passes through said chambers in an axial and lateral direction.
The heat exchanger is a hollow vessel containing the plurality of chambers and the heat exchange tubes. The vessel may be of curved, e.g. circular, or ellipsoidal, or rectilinear e.g. square or rectangular cross section, and may have a longitudinal axis substantially normal to its radial axis, as in a right cylinder. Preferably its height to width ratio is 10:1 to 2:1. The vessel may be of metal, e.g. steel, or insulating material, e.g. brick or stone, construction and especially in the case of a metal walled vessel, may have an insulating external layer.
The first heat exchanger tubes are of heat conducting material such as carbon fibre reinforced material or ceramics but preferably of metal, especially high temperature resistant steel. The tubes may be dispersed in the vessel in a random or regular array, in particular in at least 2 such as 2-6 rows, in which the tubes in adjacent rows may be in line or offset with respect to one another. The tubes may be parallel in one or two directions, so any tube is a member of two rows, the axis of one row being normal to the axis of the adjacent row or at 45° to said latter axis; the axis of one row may also be normal to the axis of the next row beyond the adjacent row. Thus the tubes may be in rectilinear rows, each tube being a constant distance from each of its 4 nearest neighbouring tubes or having 8 nearest neighbours, 4 of these at one distance and the next 4 at a longer distance. The tubes may also be in non rectilinear arrays. There may be at least 2, e.g. at least 10, first heat exchange tubes such as 2-5000, preferably 10-576, first heat exchange tubes in the vessel. They may be distributed in a square or rectangular pattern in the vessel, preferably in a square pattern and with the number of tubes in each row the same or alternating by one. They may be in a triangular pitch or a rectilinear pitch, e.g. square pitch, the rows in the rectilinear pitch being optionally parallel to or at 30-60°, e.g. 45°, to the walls of a notional or actual sheath surrounding the outermost of the tubes in the array in the vessel.
The first tubes may extend through the vessel reactor linearly, especially in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vessel, in particular for right cylindrical vessels. For rectangular vessels the tube axis is usually parallel to a longitudinal edge. Advantageously the tubes pass through opposed faces, e.g. top and bottom of the vessel. However the tubes may also pass at any angle through one of said opposed faces, rather than substantially normal thereto, and may pass through a side face of the vessel. The tube may also pass in a non-rectilinear fashion, e.g. in a curved fashion, which may be in a single plane, as in an arc of constant or varying radius, or in a serpentine fashion, e.g. a sinusoidal fashion, or the tube may be in more than one plane, e.g. in a regular or irregular helix.
The exchanger usually has insulation either surrounding the external wall of the vessel a
Font-Freide Josephus Johannes Helena Maria
Kippax John Wilson
Weedon Geoffrey Gerald
Woodfin William Terence
Bennett Henry
BP Exploration Operating Company Limited
Duong Tho
Nixon & Vanderhye
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