Heat recovery apparatus

Heat transfer is a living science and technical advances are constantly being made. However, in many cases, progress is limited by the equipment that is available on the market, rather than by knowledge of the heat transfer process. A case in point is the design of economizers: in such equipment a small quantity of water (with a relatively good heat transfer coefficient) is heated by a large quantity of low-pressure gas (with an inherently low heat transfer coefficient). As a first step in design finned tubing is used to lessen the discrepancy in coefficients. From this point, it becomes apparent that the equipment consists of a small number of tubes (to maintain good velocity on the water side) of considerable length (to provide sufficient area). In the process industries the base pressure, though low, may be in the region of 0.5 bar, and there is no convenient flue in which to place the heat recovery coil. It is therefore contained in a flat-sided enclosure, which is ill-fitted to pressure containment and is therefore reinforced with a plethora of structural sections. Such inelegant construction is quite common in North America; in Europe, cylindrical containments of vast size have been supplied for the same purposes. The real shortcoming is a successful marriage of different disciplines to produce reliable and efficient heat transfer equipment suitably contained