While oil prices continue to climb, energy conservation remains the prime concern for many process industries. The challenge every process engineer is faced with is to seek answers to questions related to their process energy patterns.

Jacketing a process vessel provided excellent heat transfer in terms of efficiency, control and product quality. All liquids can be used as well as steam and other high temperature vapor circulation. The temperature and velocity of the heat transfer media can be accurately controlled.

Many people overlook the importance of insulation in the chemical industry. Some estimates have predicted that insulation in U.S. industry alone saves approximately 200 million barrels of oil every year.

Calculating heat exchanger effectiveness allows engineers to predict how a given heat exchanger will perform a new job. Essentially, it helps engineers predict the stream outlet temperatures without a trial-and-error solution that would otherwise be necessary. Heat exchanger effectiveness is defined as the ratio of the actual amount of heat transferred to the maximum possible amount of heat that could be transferred with an infinite area.

If you live in a warmer climate, you may use what is called a "heat pump" to control the temperature in your home. Heat pumps are different from conventional heating and air conditioning units in that heat pumps have the ability to heat and cool in one unit.

Heat transfer is one of the most important industrial processes. Throughout any industrial facility, heat must be added, removed, or moved from one process stream to another. Understanding the basics of the heart of this operation is key to any engineers’ mastery of the subject.

That orange juice that you had this morning sure tasted good didn't it?  Did you ever wonder how they get it concentrated into that little can?  Chances are the manufacturers used a falling film evaporator. 

 The concept is simple.  You heat water with fuel gas.  Then you use this heat elsewhere.  But what about the heat that doesn't get transferred to the water....the heat that escapes in the boiler's flue gas?

When preparing to design a heat exchanger, do you ever wonder where to start?  You've done it before, but you hate that feeling of getting half way through the design and realizing that you forgot to consider one important element.

Cooling towers are a very important part of many chemical plants. They represent a relatively inexpensive and dependable means of removing low grade heat from cooling water.

In many cases it's convenient to have simple equations for estimation of heat transfer coefficients. Below is a collection of recommended correlations for single-phase convective flow in different geometries as well as a few equations for heat transfer processes with change of phase. Note that all equations are for mean Nusselt numbers and mean heat transfer coefficients.

A boiler is a closed vessel where water is heated, steam is generated, or steam is superheated with heat from combustion fuels, electricity, or nuclear energy.  Boilers consist of two main parts:  the furnace and the convection sections.  The furnace section is where the heat is generated (we'll assume the more common combustion heat source).  This section is designed to accommodate the three "T's" of combustion: time, temperature, and turbulence.