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  • Friday 18 March 2016

    [How to] find Reactor Heat Transfer Area Theoretically


    Gotta request from a reader asking how to Determine Reactor Heat Transfer area theoretically,

    Getting into point, A reactor usually used for carrying out reactions, extractions, distillations, pH treatments, etc, that means a common equipment for multiple operations, and to avoid some problems, reactors comes in different Materials of Construction, out of those many MOC's most commonly used were SSR- Stainless Steel Reactors, GLR- Glass Lined Reactors, MSGLR- Mild Steel Glass Lined Reactors, PPR- Poly Propylene Reactors etc.
    Usually SSR can be made with two high proportional Steel grades, those were SS316, SS304,

    they both vary in Molybdenum content
    Both SS304 and SS316 are austenitic stainless steels.
             CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SS304 AND SS316               

                  C       Mn       P         S        Si           Cr              Ni             Mo
            
    SS304  0.08    2.0    0.045   0.03    1.0    18.0-20.0     8.0-10.0        -

    SS316  0.08    2.0    0.045   0.03    1.0    16.0-18.0    10.0-14.0    2.0-3.0 

    * From the above chemical composition chart we can see the main difference between SS304 and SS316 is that SS316 contains 2%-3% molybdenum and SS304 has no molybdenum.Now the question arises that we are paying double money for SS316 only for that 2.5% 'Moly'.The answer is yes, because this  "molybdenum" is added to improve the corrosion resistance to chlorides (like sea water).That is why in coastal area plants SS316 is used.






    Lets start the Calculation of Heat transfer area of Reactor,

    So usually one thumb rule is used for calculation,
    * Length to Dia ratio is considered in between 1.2 to 1.6,
    L/D=1.3 (i make it 1.3)

    and the data i needed is the Batch Reactor Volume, and i take it 200L (0.2KL),

    so my reactor volumes compromises of one cylindrical middle part and a torispherical bottom(ASME head),



    so Volume of Reactor(0.2)=(Cylindrical Volume+Torispherical Dish volume)
                                              =((Pi*r*r*l)+((Pi/24)*D*D*D))    *here D is Internal dia
                                              =((Pi*(D/2)*(D/2)*(1.3D))+((Pi/24)*D*D*D)))













    Area of a torispherical dish = (𝝅 / 4) x ((1.147 x D)^2) = (3.141/4) x ((1.147 x 0.5576)^2)
                                                    = 0.785 x 0.409 = 0.32 Sq.m

    Total heat transfer area of the reactor = Area of cylinder + Area of torispherical dish 
                                                                       = 1.29 + 0.32 = 1.61 Sq.m

    Below is the quick demo on estimating the reactor heat transfer area:



    Specially for my Visitors or Readers, we have simulated the Calculation of heat transfer area calculation, Download this




    About The Author


    Hi! I am Ajay Kumar Kalva, Currently serving as the CEO of this site, a tech geek by passion, and a chemical process engineer by profession, i'm interested in writing articles regarding technology, hacking and pharma technology.
    Follow Me on Twitter AjaySpectator & Computer Innovations

    62 comments:

    1. Very helpful one..keep going@ jaii

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. sure mate, if anything needed then just write it in comments or send it through WHAT SHOULD I WRITE NEXT column.
        :)

        Delete
      2. I want to know....the area that u have calculated is on the inner side of reactor?

        Delete
    2. Very helpful one..keep going@ jaii

      ReplyDelete
    3. Mole balences n stoichometry basics;Material balence of some 'x' process and calculating theoretical yield,Actual yield.

      ReplyDelete
    4. Sme query regarding dat "write abt next column"
      It is displaying error whenever im posting my queries..so help me out

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. ok fine, please message me from contact us page

        Delete
    5. how to calculate the plate heat exchanger no of plates
      pls do the calculation.
      thapliyalashish48@gmail.com

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. ok Ashish, but first of all please mention me what is the mass flow rate/ volumetric flowrate of the two fluids and also what material medium you are using as baffles for structural support and also whats the volume you want to install the plate heat exchanger....!!!

        Delete
      2. ok first of thnks for ur prompt reply.
        here is the detail
        utility fluid
        service fluid 420m3/hr
        utility fluid approx 470m3/hr

        titanium grade 2 plate double pass plate heat exchanger.
        kindly mail me ur mail id if possible will inform u further .
        i have calculated although but need to rectify it.
        pls mail ur personal id .
        thapliyalashish48@gmail.com

        Delete
      3. ajaykalva823@gmail.com, u possibly mention your fluids temperatures also, and also what is the utility fluid, whether its brine[what temp.°C], service fluid properties....!!!

        Delete
      4. brine/bittern specifications
        temp inlet 30 degree
        outlet temp 98 degree
        effluent inlet temp 108
        effluent outlet 40 we need to have
        cp of brine 3.28kj/kg c
        cp of effluent 3.5 kj/kg c
        density of bittern 1258 kg/m3
        density of effluent 1238 kg /m3
        calculate the no of plates required .pls do step wise calculation

        Delete
    6. @Ashish, sorry for the late reply, what ever data you have mentioned is something un natural to be found, as this won't apply to any case upto my knowledge, as the temperature of the brine should be less than that of RT water but you have mentioned it to be 30 deg, and also whatever the utility outlet temperature you used shouldn't cross a standard difference of 5 degree, but sometime practically it will cross 5 degree and reach upto 10-12degree maximum, but here you mentioned 68 degree difference, so this will cause some severe effect to the utility plants as they can't recover back from this delta T value, so finally i want to tell you that some error lies in the data you provided, for successful calculation the inlet and outlet temperatures of cold fluid should be less than that of the final temperature of the hot fluid,

      Hope you understand this....... Still if you want an spreadsheet for calculating the plates number and other parameters, we are happy to help you, thanks for commenting

      ReplyDelete
    7. Dear ajay you did'nt get my actual point .
      let me explain you .we are having a stripping column in which the brine is feeded from the top and steam is used for stripping purpose .the vapour bromine gets condensed and get recovered from the condensers .the brine is feed normally at 98 degree centigrade and the effluent at the bottom of the column reached upto 108 degree and is passed through phe and feed brine which is at 30 degree is pass through the phe and utilize the heat of effluent and get 98 in degree centigrade.and outlet effluent gets 45in degree after heat transfer through phe to bittern / brine
      hope u get the exact idea about the flow across phe .

      ReplyDelete
    8. @Ashish, then here is the calculation that will extend upto calculation of heat transfer area, coz u didnt mentioned me the volume dimensions that you have for installing this PHE,

      First of all we need to check the feasibility of the case whether the data meets our requirement or not, so as per your data,
      Heat to be taken off from effluent to cool from 108 to 45= 420 x 1238 x 3.5 x ( 108-45 ) = 114651180 Kj/hr = 31847550 Watts,
      Heat that our brine need to take from the effluent by sensible heat change from 30 to 98 = 470 x 1258 x 3.28 x ( 98-30 ) = 131874630.4 Kj/hr = 36631841.8 Watts,

      As our brine can take upto 36,631,841.8 Watts of energy, there wont be any problem in execution of out plan using PHE, and now lets coming to Area calculation, the most probable appropriate U value will be 2500 watt/Sq.m K (this is the minimum U value considered for a PHE),

      So now Area A= 36631841.8 / ( 2500 x ( ((108-30)-(98-45))/Ln ((108-30)/(98-45)) ) ) = 226 Sq.m, if you can consider the maximum U Value as 4000-4500 W/Sq.m. K, then the required area would be 141.5 Sq.m,

      Now coming to the thickness calculation, Thickness = ( 23 x 226 x (98-30) ) / 36631841.8 = 9.64mm, here figure 23 is the thermal conductivity of the titanium grade 2 in W/m. K,

      As usually the chevron angle should be in between 25 degree to 65 degree, and the enlargement factor will be taken in between 1.1 and 1.25 as this is indirectly means some extended surface,

      And if you can tell me the volume, where the PHE is supposed to be installed, then i can make the number of plates calculation.

      Thats it, if anything you got wrong comment here, thanks

      ReplyDelete
    9. Q1. The topic is well explained for jacket type ,but heat transfer area if practically we will see in jacket reactor is of cylinder + torrispherical bottom dish only ,nothing is present in top torrispherical dish , so we can take area 5% instead of 10%
      Q2. what will we take if it is limpet type?
      Q2. in attached excel sheet if you enter 2 m3 ,l/d=1.3 result comes to be 20m2 which is very high.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Hey anshu, thanks for reminding me of the wrong simulation, and i've updated it, now try to download and work it out, and what ever the case may be with Jacket having Annular surface or limpet coil because the only thing that changes is developing of air pockets in case of annular jackets, which is a advantage in limpet coil, for a HT area of torispherical dish we will consider 11% of the cylinder HT area.

        Delete
    10. Hey Ajay,
      I have a question please: Why did you say the L/D is between 1.2 to 1.6 ? Do you have reference for that? and do you know what is the L/D for plug flow reactors I mean can I use 1.2-1.6 for PFR ?

      Thanks

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Hey Mr.Anonymous,

        there wont be any reference for that, i've considered it based on many design, that i've seen, and also mostly, it will be considered in between 1.05 to 1.1,

        PFR dont have an agitator, and composition will vary along the length, then L/D doesn't make any sense.

        Regards,
        PHARMA ENGINEERING

        Delete
      2. Hello dear Kumar
        Thanks again for your help
        In your excel, for calculation of D, you used 0.8 coefficient.
        please tell why you did it. How you achieve the 0.8?
        Thank you

        Delete
      3. Hiii ,

        pi / 4 = 0.785, i've rounded it off to 0.8, that's it.

        Next time, kindly comment with your good name plz.

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
      4. Thank you
        Please clear me...I don't know where is my mistake
        V=(pi*D^2*L)/4,,,,,,,L/D=a
        D=(4*V/pi*a)^1/3
        Where should be used 0.8 at above Eq.?
        Best regards
        Miano

        Delete
      5. Hi Ajay,

        I think 0.8 factor shouldn't come as you are already multiplying with (4/3.14)factor in the formula. Can you please confirm once again?

        Regards,
        Pavan

        Delete
    11. how can we directly consider 10% of torisherical HT?

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. that's just a thumb rule buddy.

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    12. Hi seems there is an error in the calculation : 1.29 + 10/100 x 1.29 = 1.29 + 0.129 = 1.419 sq.m and not 1.3.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Hey buddy,

        Thanks for correcting it......!!!!

        Thanks & Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    13. How to calculate centrifuge feed capacity used in api induStry

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear,

        Usually there will be some standard basket capacities for the centrifuges, lets suppose a centrifuge of size 36" will have a basket capacity of around 150 L, and the material you want to filter in that centrifuge is having a bulk density of 0.4, then you can filter a reaction mass having material weight 150 x 0.4 = 60 Kgs.
        That's it.....!!!

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    14. Dear sir,
      Can u plz provide the path for determining the desired heat transfer area of condensers (any utility)for the distillation of any specific solvent

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear Ashish,

        pl follow the link and go through the post,
        https://pharmacalc.blogspot.in/2016/04/how-to-design-condenser.html

        Still any queries pl feel free to comment,
        For your information, i'm leaking out a thumb rule, if you want to select a condenser for a reactor just double the reactor capacity, that's it......!!!

        If its 1 10 KL reactor, simply go with 20 Sq.m condenser.

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    15. Dear Ajay,
      How to do energy balance for FBD & RCVD or RVPD??

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear Mahesh,

        Usually wherever there is a solvent rich content, there energy balance can be effectively applied, but during drying most of the times there will be falling rate period cases, hence we cannot apply energy balance approximately.
        And coming to your query, you have mentioned two types of dryer,
        1) Indirect contact dryer - RCVD,
        2) Direct contact dryer - FBD.
        In RCVD most of the times we cannot predict the energy required for drying, and the same is the case of FBD too.

        Because we wont have any provisions for monitoring the material temperatures.

        If its a ATFD / ATFE we can perform the energy balance, as the input itself will be solvent rich.

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    16. hi ajay,

      I need 0.5 KL SS REACTOR boil up rate and condenser area calculation

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear Sir,

        Pl find the below calculation steps, considered water as reaction mass,
        Remaining parameters considered as worst case,

        Occupancy 60%
        HTA 2.68 Sq.m
        Effective HTA 1.61 Sq.m
        U 200 KCal/Sq.m.hr.K
        Steam 110 C
        Initial Final
        Rxn. Mass 30 90
        Mix. Density 1000 Kg/Cu.m
        LMTD 43.28 C
        Boil up 27.84 Kg

        U for condenser 300 KCal/Sq.m.hr.K
        in out
        Utility 10 18
        LMTD 75.93 C
        Condenser Capacity 0.61 Sq.m
        Safety consideration 30% excess 0.79 Sq.m

        Any queries, pl reply back,

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
      2. thanks, please tell, what Cu.m is?this unit in your excel was applied for volume unit.

        Delete
      3. Yeah, its unit of volume

        Delete
    17. Can I caluculation a reactor TR value with only heat transfer area.
      Like that reactor heat transfer area is 11.89 sq.mtr, what is TR for that.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear ,

        If only Heat transfer area is known, then lets consider the remaining things as default.

        I'll consider water as solvent with 80% occupancy, and i think the 11.89 Sq.m of reactor will have 5 KL volume. so the effective volume will be 4000 L,

        Heat energy = 4000 x 1 x 1 x (100-0) = 800000 Kcal.

        TR = 400000 / 3024 = 132.27 TR.

        100 is the boiling point of water,
        0 is the freezing point of water.
        1, 1 are the densities and specific heat.

        Hope you understand,

        Next time kindly comment with your good name plz.

        Best Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    18. Dear sir,
      How have you taken the L/D value Whether it is constant for all reactor volumes and also i have not understood what is boilup. And i know only the volume of reactor how can i find its ID and Thickness

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear ,

        I've taken the L/D in general, surely it will vary from reactor to reactor,
        Boilup means the amount of vapour that is generated by heat transfer through the reactor surface.
        You can get the inner dia and thickness from equipment GA(General Arrangement) drawings.

        Next time kindly comment with your good name plz.

        Best Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    19. Dear sir,
      Will this calculation be applicable for agitated vessel. And also how can we say this heat transfer area for all, because we may have internal coil or limpet coil or simple jacket at that time also do we have same area. Kindly clarify it, am very confused.
      Thanks and regards
      Rakeshkumar

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear Rajesh,

        Most probably for annular jackets, you can use it, for limpet coil also you can use it because limpet coil is designed for effective heat transfer and the gap between the coil rings acts as extended surfaces which attributes to effectiveness.

        So, as per my knowledge, in case of limpet coil gaps between rings there will be heat transfer but it will be slightly less than that of the ring area's, so you may take it as ~90% of the total heat transfer area.

        If its a double limpet then there wont be any issue.

        If nay queries, feel free to comment / message me through the contact me page.

        Best Rgards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    20. Hai, here D is a dia of either torispherical or cylindrcal

      ReplyDelete
    21. All topics are very good and helpful .
      Thank you Sir

      ReplyDelete
    22. Perimeter of cylinder= 2(pid+ l)

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear,

        In the above calculation i've used equilateral dimensions, i.e., if we dont know the perimeter of a cylinder directly then we may use that of a rectangle by visualizing that the cylinder is cut open at one point.

        Delete
    23. This is Alagu, how to calculate the flow rate viscous fluid flow from elevated tank through gravity. say viscosity is around 8000 cp. Hope beranulis theorem can not be applied for the viscous liquid

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear ,

        the velocity of a viscous fluid can be considered between 0.6-0.9 m/sec,
        Got this from Introduction to Chemical Engineering book,
        Bernoulis equation can be applied to viscius fluids too, bu the flow should be irrotational.

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    24. Dear sir,
      This is Eswar What is torispherical volume and how can we calculate it plz explain

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Hii Eswar,

        Pl follow below link: https://www.pharmacalculations.com/2016/03/how-tocalculate-volume-occupied-by.html

        Best Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    25. In the calculation of Torispherical Area what does 1.147 stands for?
      Is it any multiple factor?

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Hiii ,

        Yeah thats a multiple factor, and i've derived through regression.

        Next time, kindly comment with you good name.

        Best Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
    26. HI sir This Ramana, Reactor jacket size: 1920 X 1800 X 8mm , Bottom Shell jacket 1920 X 10 mm.

      How to calculate Jacket area in sq,mtr.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Dear Ramz,

        Query is not clear for me, which area you want to calculate ?
        Whether its a heat transfer area or total surface area ?

        Regards,
        AJAY K

        Delete
      2. heat transfer area & Formula.

        Delete
    27. Dear Ajay i want yes heat transfer area of Jacket.

      ReplyDelete
    28. Sir. May I know how to calculate the Heat transfer area of a round bottomed spherical reactor?

      ReplyDelete
    29. Sir,
      How much degree of inclination is required while installation of condenser.

      ReplyDelete

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    Hi! I am Ajay Kumar Kalva, owner of this site, a tech geek by passion, and a chemical process engineer by profession, i'm interested in writing articles regarding technology, hacking and pharma technology.

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