(48d) Process Heat Transfer for Enhanced Energy Efficiency and Productivity: Past, Present and Future.

The process heat transfer has come long way from 50-years ago to the present design and development status. Prof. Bell’s work was a crucial part of the design and development of process heat transfer and provides foundation for achieving decarbonization goal of the process industry. Dr. Jerry Jaborek, first HTRI director, in his 1979 D.Q. Kern Award lecture provided an overview of evaluation of heat exchanger design technique. He indicated that more shell-and-tube heat exchangers have been designed in that time using methods described in Kern’s Process Heta Transfer. The customary sources of new developments for practical applications disappeared and confidential tools such as HTRI, HTFS and FPRI became the design tools. The future trends would consist of: a) sophisticated design methods; b) reliable physical and thermodynamic properties; c) design program logic based on process configuration; d) shop-ready heat exchanger drawings and e) engineering judgement decision. The present status of process heat transfer consists of a) alternate heat exchangers, plate-frame and plate-fin; b) reliable physical properties by linking with property databases; c) interfacing ASPEN Plus process simulation; d) sensitivity analysis to evaluate the impact on process conditions and e) economic analysis. Prof. Bell’s work on phase-change heat transfer, specifically multi component condensation, is well recognized. His work on process heat transfer expanded to energy conversion systems. Selected selection of publications of this author with Prof. Bell elucidate: 1) condensation and flow boiling in spirally fluted tubes; 2) simultaneous production of desalinated water and power with hybrid-OTEC system using aluminum plate-fin condenser; 3) Nusselt type condensation on triangular fluted tubes; 4) plate-fin condensation of low-pressure steam in the presence of non-condensable gases; 5) spirally fluted tube heat exchanger as a condenser and evaporator and 6) condensation keynote presentation at International Heat Transfer Conference, 1978. Prof. Bell had supervised a good number of Master and PhD students and published in the open literature. Prof. Bell’s research provides foundation for future process heat transfer consisting of: a) process intensification by integrating reaction and heat transfer, specifically in reactive distillation column; b) design of reboilers to minimize maldistribution of liquid and vapor phases causing localized fouling; c) heat integrated distillation for enhanced energy efficiency; d) heat integration in capture of carbon dioxide and conversion to value-added products. In summary, this presentation links process heat transfer from past to present leading to future with the focus on decarbonization in the process industry.