Heat Exchanger

According to the article, Cooling water systems heat transfer retrieved from
http://www.gewater.com/handbook/cooling_water_systems/ch_23_heat.jsp,

The

function of a cooling system is to remove heat from processes or equipment. Heat

removed from one medium is transferred to another medium, or process fluid. Most
often, the cooling medium is water. However, the heat transfer concepts and calculations
discussed in this chapter can also be applied to other fluids. Efficient removal of heat is
an economic requirement in the design and operation of a cooling system. The driving
force for the transfer of heat is the difference in temperature between the two media. In
most cooling systems, this is in the range of 10-200 degrees F. The heat flux is generally
low and in the range of 5,000 to 15,000 Btu/ft2/hr. For exceptional cases such as the
indirect cooling of molten metal, the heat flux can be as high as 3,000,000 Btu/ft2/hr. The
transfer of heat from process fluids or equipment results in a rise in temperature, or even
a change of state, in the cooling water. Many of the properties of water, along with the
behavior of the contaminants it contains, are affected by temperature. The tendency of a
system to corrode, scale, or support microbiological growth is also affected by water
temperature. These effects, and the control of conditions that foster them, are addressed
in subsequent chapters.
According to Holman et. al. (2008), To obtain cooled substrate having a
temperature suitable for inoculation, the cooling Water preferably has a temperature
below 400C., more preferably below 200C., and even more preferably below 10C. In
practice, a Water temperature of about 0.5 to 40C. appears very suitable for efficient
cooling.

Deindoerfer et.al. (1958) stated that regarding the cooling sections, the stirredtank, or (quench cooler with adequate heat removal capacity, is distinctly the best single
cooler because hot medium is instantly cooled to sublethal temperatures by dilution in the
colder medium. The water injector and flash coolers, in that order, are the next best. In a
flash chamber, internal pressure in the process system prevents (from a sound pure
culture basis) cooling below about 220F. A water injector can cool to below this
temperature without excessive medium dilution. A combination of these latter two
methods with each other, or with any other cooling section, will generally be required.
The plate exchanger is better than the spiral or tubular exchanger, and the immersed coil
because of the same reasons cited for exchanger heating sections. For the special case of
countercurrent exchangers where the hot and cold streams have equal flow rates and heat
capacities, the heating and cooling curves reduce to straight-line curves. They do occur
frequently, however, in heat recovery sections where hot medium is cooled by cold raw
medium.
Junker et. al. (2006) said that heating is accomplished indirectly using steam or
hot water via a heat exchanger (HEX) or directly by mixing steam with incoming
medium (steam injection). Cooling HEXs can use cooling tower/chilled water, but also
may use vacuum to reduce temperature and draw off any accumulated water from direct
steam injection. During water sterilization, incoming cold water was circulated for two
passes (one pass if system was already hot from steam sterilization) at 60 liters per
minute using the centrifugal inlet feed pump, after it rose to the sterilization inlet hold
temperature of 150C. It required previously steamed-through system block/drain valves

since users were not comfortable that conduction adequately sterilized through them
when closed. The non-sterile side of the recuperator HEX was bypassed to ensure that the
sterile side reached sterilization temperature. Cooling water was applied to the flash
cooler to ensure that the process cooler attained sterilization temperature. For the target
sterilization temperature of just below 150C and a 60 liters per minute water flowrate,
the temperature reached about 148.5C at the sterile side of the recuperator and 146.5C
for the sterile side of the process cooler.
Based on the article, Contamination Free Medium by Sterilization (With Diagram)
retrieved from http://www.biologydiscussion.com/biotechnology/contamination-freemedium-by-sterilization-with-diagram/7485,
The residence time or holding time of the media is fixed by adjusting the flow rate
and length of insulated holding pipe. The hot stream from the sterilizer is rapidly cooled
by a heat exchanger, (with or without heat recovery) and/or by flash-cooling before it
enters the fermentor vessel.
From the book entitled, Principles of Fermentation Technology by Stanbury et.
al. (2003),
The temperature of the medium is elevated in a continuous heat exchanger and is then
maintained in an insulated serpentine holding coil for the holding period. The length of
the holding period is dictated by the length of the coil and the flow rate of the medium.
The hot medium is then cooled to the fermentation temperature using two sequential heat
exchangers the first utilizing the incoming medium as the cooling source (thus
conserving heat by heating-up the incoming medium) and the second using the cooling
water. In some cases, the injection system is combined with flash cooling, where the

sterilized medium is cooled by passing it through an expansion valve into an vacuum

chamber. Cooling the occurs virtually instantly. A flow chart of a continuous sterilization
system using direct steam injection is shown in Fig. 5.10. In some cases, a combination
of direct and indirect heat exchangers may be used.
Reference:
(Stanbury, P.F., Whitaker, A., 2003)