I have to design a heat exchanger for a reactor in which an exothermic reaction is taking place over a cycle period of 1000 s. The issue is that the rate of reaction is exponentially decreasing. If I use the maximum rate of heat release (which is in MW), the overall heat transfer value is coming out to be huge. What approach should I follow. I have also attached a file to indicate the nature of the graph.
You should introduce an "accumulator" between source and exchanging surface in order to smooth the heat transfer to the last. The "accumulator" must have a high thermal diffusibility in order to reduce hot surface temperature. With such a design heat is first accumulated in the first part of the circuit and then transferred to the cooling fluid at an averaged condition.
Thanks for the answer Nick. I'll look it up and get back to you if I have a doubt.
Maybe you should consider to use the microreaction technology. Our Company has experience with exothermic reactions to be handled by microreactors special designed for each case. What is the aimed throughout capacity?
Thanks Stefan for the input. It is a porous bed reactor meant to absorb 0.5 kg of gas, producing 2.2 kW that needs to be dissipated. Will a micro-reactor work in this case?
It depends on your objective. If you are simply trying to cool the product without regard for heat recovery a quench with any appropriate inert material should work. If you want to recover the heat at a high level then you need to design a heat exchanger capable of achieving your goal. There will be a trade off between cost of the exchanger vs temperature level at which you need to recover heat. An accumulator as Nick has suggested or multiple reactors in parallel are also possible solutions
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