When should I use an air cooled heat exchanger?

Air cooled heat exchangers, also known as Fin Fan heat exchangers, are typically used in applications where water is not available or the desired process outlet temperature can be achieved given the maximum ambient temperatures.

What type of heat exchanger is used in air cooled condenser?

Air-cooled heat exchangers are manufactured from finned tubes. Typical ratio of extended to bare tube area is 15:1 to 20:1. Finned tubes are efficient when the heat transfer coefficient outside the tubes is much lower than inside the tubes.

How does an air heat exchanger work?

An air to air heat exchanger uses a heat pipe to transfer heat from a hot enclosure to the cooler ambient air. This refrigerant boils when absorbing heat from the hot air in the enclosure. The resultant vapor rises to the top of the tube and is condensed by the cooler ambient air when giving up its heat.

What is air-cooled exchanger?

Air Cooled Heat Exchanger (ACHE) is a heat rejection equipment where the excess process heat is rejected to the atmosphere. The process fluid passes through the tubes and air stream is passed over the tubes to carry away the heat; air streams are created by the fans mounted on the unit.

Where are air coolers used?

Air-cooled heat exchangers are used extensively throughout the oil and gas industry, from upstream production to refineries and petrochemical plants, under high pressure and high temperature conditions, as well as corrosive fluids and environments.

How does an air cooled condenser?

An air cooled condenser (ACC) is a direct dry cooling system where steam is condensed inside air-cooled finned tubes. In thermal power plants (T), the steam from the turbine exhaust flows into the ACC where condensation occurs. Then the condensate returns to the boiler (B) in a closed loop.

What is an air to air exchanger?

An air-to-air heat exchanger brings two air streams of different temperatures into thermal contact, transferring heat from the exhausting inside air to incoming outside air during the heating season. The air-to-air heat exchanger removes the excess humidity and flushes out odors and pollutants generated indoors.

How effective are air source heat pumps?

For example, a typical air source heat pump runs at a COP 3.2 when the outside temperature is above 7°C. This means that the heat pump is 320\% efficient: for each kWh of electricity used by the fans and the compressor, 3.2 kWh of heat is generated. The higher the COP, the better.

How efficient are plate heat exchangers?

With those factors embedded into industry calculations, plate heat exchangers are still consistently found to be the most efficient of all heat exchangers. Typically, they can achieve efficiency rates of approximately 90\%.

Why do we use plate heat exchanger?

The plate heat exchanger (PHE) is a specialized design well suited to transferring heat between medium- and low-pressure fluids. Welded, semi-welded and brazed heat exchangers are used for heat exchange between high-pressure fluids or where a more compact product is required.

How can we increase the efficiency of air-cooled heat exchanger?

Heat Transfer Effectiveness The best an air-cooled heat exchanger can do is to cool the process fluid to the ambient temperature. If the temperature needs to be lower, a spray of water on the pipes and fins adds an evaporative element.