Questions to Group 6

Compressor
● Why is the average molar mass so high (46 g/mol) while it should be of the range 14
g/mol?
● Why is the density of the fluid streams so less (1.89 kg/m 3) even at such high operating
pressures (= 20 bar)?
● Why is the power of the motor for running the compressor very less (0.24 MW) when
compared to the size of the plant, which is 125 MW ?
● What is the most sensitive parameter while designing the compressor?

Heat exchanger
● Is it possible practically to have such high overall heat transfer coefficients (450 W/m2-K)
having known that both the fluid streams on the shell side and tube side consist mainly of
gases (non-condensable gases)? (as usually this value for gases is less than 200 W.m2-
K)
● The pressure drop on the shell-side is very high (=2.6 bar). How would you optimize it as
it adds to the increase in costs?
● What effect does the high shell-side velocity have on the shell design in view of flow
induced vibrations and tube thickness?
● Further, does this high shell-side velocity produce eddies that limits the heat transfer rate
to the tubes in that shell-region?
● What are the main (sensitive) variables that influence the design of the heat exchanger?
● What would be the ideal relation between the baffle cut and baffle spacing?
● In future due to application demand, if a phase change takes place due to more heat
transfer, would the current assumptions remain same with regards to tube allocation, tube
arrangement etc.?
● For 1-tube pass and 1-shell pass, won’t the correction factor, Ft be less than 1 as in this
case, the shell-side flow varies from axial to cross flow along the tube length?
● It was mentioned in the report that, longer tubes are cost effective however, the optimum
design has a very short tube length of 2.44 m. Can it be explained?
● For the failure criteria, why is the length = 1*lb considered while checking the buckling
failure? Isn’t it wise to check the criteria for a length of 2*lb as certain tubes are supported
by baffles that have a distance of 2*lb between them?
● In case of emergency shut down of the heat exchanger, how are the fluids inside the
reactor removed?
● While checking the Flow induced vibrations, which fluid velocity was considered,
maximum or average?
Distillation column
● Why mass fractions used instead of molar fractions?
○ These fractions are not corresponding to VLE-diagram and McCabe-Thiele
method.
● On what number of equilibrium stages are the other calculations based?
● How is the liquid surface tension (Eq. 4.17) determined? Seems too high.
● How is the weir length to diameter ratio determined (=a - value)?
● Is equation 4.28 (height of weir crest) used correctly? Formula is not presented correctly.