Prediction and performance of compact latent heat recovery heat exchanger with small diameter tubes

The most part of energy losses in power system such as fuel cells is due to the heat released by the exhaust gas to atmosphere. The exhaust gas consists of non-condensable gas and steam with sensible and latent heat. As a lot of latent heat is included in the exhaust gas, its recovery is very important to improve the power system efficiency. Based on the previous basic studies, a thermal hydraulic prediction method for latent heat recovery exchangers was proposed. For the condensation of steam on heat transfer tubes, the modified Sherwood number taking account of the mass absorption effect on the wall was used. Two kinds of compact heat exchanger with staggered banks of bare tubes of 10.5 or 4mm in outer diameter was designed with the prediction method. The more compactness was obtained with the smaller tubes at a designed heat recovery. The thermal hydraulic behavior in the compact heat exchangers was experimentally studied with air-steam mixture gas. In the parametric experiments varying the steam mass concentration, the temperature distributions of cooling water and mixture gas were measured. The experimental results agreed well with the prediction proposed in this study and the more compactness with the smaller tubes was proved.