Different Strategies to Improve Industrial Heat Exchange

Abstract A variety of different strategies are available to process and equipment designers to improve industrial heat transfer. These range from the use of efficient forms of individual heat exchangers to the optimum utilization of the individual units in a network, generally referred to as "process integration." This article attempts to review these strategies with reference to the conventional and more recent forms of shell-and-tube heat exchangers. In the context of a heat exchanger network, process heat transfer intensification ( global intensification ), i.e., network design for maximum energy recovery, is a first important step. This needs to be then combined with heat transfer intensification in individual units/shells ( local intensification ). The benefits of global and local intensification are illustrated with examples of a helically baffled heat exchanger ( Helixchanger ), as a representative of a more recent form of shell-and-tube exchanger. Some aspects concerning the use of multistream heat exchangers are discussed, and finally, an example for optimization of a plate-type heat exchanger is presented.