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Cryogenic Heat Exchangers

DOI 10.1615/hedhme.a.015668

Cryogenic Heat Exchangers

Systems that operate at temperatures below 123 K are known as cryogenic systems. Cryogenic heat exchangers such as those used in air separation operate from ambient down to cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic heat exchangers used in large air separation plants are typically 510 m long, and those in large natural gas liquefaction plants are even larger. On the other hand, cryogenic refrigerators use very small heat exchangers, some times as small as a few tens of millimeters. Both very large and very small cryogenic heat exchangers are required to operate at very high effectiveness. While most large heat exchangers used in air separation plants are designed for an effectiveness of 93%–94%, small heat exchangers used in cryocoolers as well as huge heat exchangers used in large natural gas liquefiers are designed for effectiveness over 97%. Many design aspects not considered in conventional heat exchangers need to be considered in the design of cryogenic heat exchangers because of the requirement of very high heat exchanger effectiveness.

This section deals with the fundamental aspects of cryogenic heat exchangers, the need for high effectiveness in cryogenic systems, and the methods for the design of two different heat exchanger types, namely, the coil wound (Giaque–Hampson) heat exchangers and the perforated plate matrix heat exchangers (MHE), used almost exclusively in cryogenic systems.

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