Patent Application
20170370649
The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0162632, filed on Nov. 19, 2015, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.
The present invention relates to a high-vacuum serial condenser system and, more particularly, to a high-vacuum serial condenser system that can minimize a pressure drop of fluid in condensers by disposing straight pipes between the condensers and installing baffles at predetermined angles in the condensers.
In general, condensers (heat exchangers) are, depending on the types, classified into an air-cooled condenser, a water-cooled condenser, an evaporative condenser, a shell and tube condenser, etc., and of theses condensers, the shell and tube condenser is easiest to manufacture and operate, so it is generally used in various commercial processes. The shell and tube condenser can be categorized into various types, depending on the shell types based on standard types by TEMA (Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association). Of these shell types, E-type is most widely used, and a J-type or an X-type is used for a large pressure drop.
As described above, when two or more condensers are connected in series, a pressure drop is usually generated, so a way of condensing fluid at shell sides of condensers is required. An X-type of shell is used to solve this problem, but even in this case, a pressure drop over at least several torrs is generated and it is difficult to design high-vacuum condensers of about 3 to 30 torr.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a high-vacuum serial condenser system that can minimize a pressure drop of fluid in condensers by disposing straight pipes between the condensers and installing baffles at predetermined angles in the condensers.
In order to achieve the object of the present invention, a high-vacuum serial condenser system includes: a first condenser including a shell that has one or more vapor inlets for supplying gas-state fluid to be condensed, a condensed liquid outlet for discharging condensed liquid to the outside, and one or more vapor outlets for discharging gas-state fluid, vapor supply pipes coupled to the vapor inlets, and a condensed liquid discharge pipe coupled to the condensed liquid outlet; a second condenser including a shell that has vapor inlets for supplying gas-state fluid discharged from the vapor outlets to be condensed, a condensed liquid outlet for discharging condensed liquid to the outside, and a vapor outlet for discharging the gas-state fluid to the outside, a condensed liquid discharge pipe coupled to the condensed liquid, and a vapor discharge pipe coupled to the vapor outlet; and vapor delivery pipes for delivering and supplying the gas-state fluid discharged from the vapor outlets of the first condenser to the second condenser, in which vapor outlets of the first condenser and the vapor inlets of the second condenser face each other, and tubes for delivering refrigerants and baffles for making flow of fluid having a specific pattern are disposed in each of the first and second condensers.
According to the high-vacuum serial condenser system of the present invention, it is possible to minimize the length by providing straight pipes between the condensers and it is also possible to minimize a pressure drop of fluid in the condensers by arranging baffles at a predetermined angle in the condensers.
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The vapor outlets 16 of the first condenser 10 and the vapor inlets 42 of the second condenser face each other, and tubes (not shown) for delivering refrigerants (cooling water and chilled water) and baffles (not shown) for making flow of fluid having a specific pattern are disposed in each of the first and second condensers 10 and 40.
The high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention uses condensers having about 3 to 30 torr with little pressure drop of fluid, and various shell types of condensers such as an E-shell type, an I-shell type, a J-shell type, and an X-shell type of shell types by TEMA (Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association) may be used, but the X-shell type condenser that can minimize a pressure drop is preferable. Meanwhile, the others except for the components for minimizing a pressure drop of fluid in pipes between condensers that is an object of the present invention, that is the components and operation mechanisms of common serial condenser systems are briefly or not described herein. For example, in the high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention, in order to supply and discharge cooling water, a cooling water inlet (not shown) and a cooling water outlet (not shown) are formed respectively at the head and the rear of each of the first condenser 10 and the second condenser 40, and a cooling water inlet pipe (not shown) and a cooling water discharge pipe (not shown) can be coupled respectively to the cooling water inlet and outlet. Accordingly, it should be noted that even if not specifically stated herein, the basic components of common condenser systems are included in the high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention.
The high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention is characterized in that the vapor inlets 12 and the vapor outlet 16 are arranged at 90° in the first condenser 10, the vapor inlets 42 and the vapor outlet 46 are arranged at 90° in the second condenser 40 (that is, the vapor outlets 16 and the vapor inlets 42 are formed at the sides facing each other of the first condenser 10 and the second condenser 40), and the pipes (the vapor delivery pipes 30 herein) connecting the first condenser 10 and the second condenser 40 are made straight, so it is possible to prevent or minimize a pressure drop that is generated in pipes between two serial condensers in the related art. Further, since the pipes connecting the first condenser 10 and the second condenser 40 are made straight, the two condensers 10 and 40 can be arranged in parallel with each other, as shown in
That is, by using the high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention, it is possible to solve the problem with existing serial condenser systems in the related art. That is, it is possible to prevent or minimize a pressure drop that is generated in proportion to the lengths of pipes between condensers when the condensers (heat exchangers) are connected in series, particularly, a large pressure drop at elbows where pipes connecting condensers are bent at the right angle (90 degrees). When pressure decreases, vaporization occurs well, so condensation becomes difficult, and in this case, the environment is contaminated and the costs for operation and raw materials are increased due to vapor that is discharged without condensing. Accordingly, by using the high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention in a condensing process within an operation pressure range (or a fluid pressure range) of about 3 to 30 torr, a pressure drop of fluid is minimized, so the problems described above can be solved.
The number of the vapor inlets 12 of the first condenser 10 may depend on the length of the condenser, but it is preferable to form one vapor inlet 12 per 1 to 2 m of the length of the condenser. The number of the vapor outlets 16 of the first condenser 10, similar to the vapor inlets 12 of the first condenser 10, may depend on the length of the condenser and it is preferable to form one vapor inlet per about 1 to 2 m of the length of the condenser. The reason of forming one vapor inlet 12 and one vapor outlet 16 per about 1 to 2 m of the length of the condenser is that a pressure drop may increase when the numbers of the vapor inlets 12 and the vapor outlets 16 are small. Further, when the number of the vapor inlets 12 is small, vapor may not be smoothly distributed (or dissipated) in the shell 18 or the condensing efficiency may be decreased due to channeling. A distributor is disposed in the shell for smooth distribution of vapor in a shell, but it is also a factor that causes a pressure drop, so it cannot be used in high-vacuum condensers. On the contrary, when the number of the vapor inlets 12 is large, a pressure drop is decreased and vapor is smoothly distributed in the shell, but the manufacturing cost (for the vapor inlets and pipes to be connected to the vapor inlets) increases, so it is preferable to set an appropriate numbers of vapor inlets and vapor outlets.
Further, the opposite ends of the vapor delivery pipes 30 are supposed to be coupled to the vapor outlets 16 of the first condenser 10 and the vapor inlets 42 of the second condenser 40, so the number of the vapor inlets 42 of the second condenser 40 should be the same as the number of the vapor outlets 16 of the first condenser 10. On the other hand, as shown in
The high-vacuum serial condenser system according to the present invention is further characterized in that baffles for making a specific pattern of fluid flow in the condensers are disposed at 45° between the vapor inlets 12 and the vapor outlets 16 of the first condenser 10 and between the vapor inlets 42 and the vapor outlets 46 of the second condenser 40 in order to prevent a decrease in condensing efficiency that is generated when the gas-state fluid supplied into the condensers 10 and 40 through the vapor inlets 12 and 42 is discharged directly outside through the vapor outlets 16 and 46 without condensing.
Preferable embodiments are provided hereafter to help understand the present invention, but it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the following embodiments are just examples and may be changed and modified in various ways without the spirit and scope of the present invention and the changes and modifications are also included in claims.
The system includes X-shell type condensers, and in which, as shown in
Vapor outlets of a first condenser and vapor inlets of a second condenser were all formed at the bottoms of the first and second condensers, respectively, and were connected through vapor delivery pipes bent as four positions (that is, composed of 1 m, 1 m, 3 m, 1 m, and 3 m parts), vapor discharged from the first condenser was supplied to the second condenser at 7.74 torr, and other conditions were the same as in Embodiment 1.
The condensers used in Embodiment 1 and Comparative example 1 are all X-shell types and there is little difference in pressure drop in the condensers by the positions of the vapor inlets and the vapor outlets. Accordingly, as the result of comparing the pressure drops only in the vapor delivery pipes in Embodiment 1 and Comparative example 1, a pressure drop of 0.7% was generated in the vapor delivery pipes in Embodiment 1, while a pressure drop of 22% was generated in the vapor delivery pipes (the total 7 m pipes bent at four positions) in Comparative example 1. Accordingly, it can be seen that it is required to increase the power of a vacuum pump to obtain pressure at the initially set level, so it is only required to suck the vapor at 9.93 torr using a vacuum pump in Embodiment 1 and to suck the vapor at 7.74 torr using a vacuum pump in Comparative example 1 in order to maintain pressure at 10 torr. Further, it can be seen that the pressure in the second condenser drops by 22.6%, as compared with the first condenser, in Comparative example 1, so the condensing efficiency considerably decreases, as compared with the first condenser, and the operation cost increases, as compared with Embodiment 1.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2015-0162632 | Nov 2015 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2016/012818 | 11/8/2016 | WO | 00 |
