CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SERIES: HEAT TRANSFER

SOLVED PROBLEMS

A newly hired chemical engineer was assigned to assess the performance of a coconut oil
(CNO) counter-current cooler in an oil mill. From the coolers design book, he obtained thye
following data:
Coconut Oil (CNO):
Flow rate : 30 MT/day
Inlet temperature : 70C
Outlet temperature : 30C
Specific heat : 0.65 kcal/kgC
Cooling water:
Inlet temperature : 25C
Outlet temperature : 40C

From a series of test runs, the chemical engineer conducted, he established that with the flow
rates and inlet temperature of the two media maintained at design conditions, the average
outlet temperatures of CNO is 45C.
a) Calculate the resulting outlet temperature of the cooling water in C.
b) Calculate the % reduction in the OHTC of the system from the design value, assuming no
reduction in the heat transfer area.
(Source: CHE BP May 1989)

SOLUTION:

For the design conditions (1)

q c qh

mC P T c mC P T h

m CP Th
mc eqn 1
CP T c

To find the outlet temperature of the cooling water during the test run (2), assume all conditions the same

excluding the CNO outlet temperature, from equation 1

mc1mc 2

mC P T h mC P T h
C P T c 1 C P T c 2

ENGR. RONNIE V. FLORES Page 1

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SERIES: HEAT TRANSFER
SOLVED PROBLEMS

T h 1 T h 2
Tc 1 Tc 2

3070 4570
4025 T co225

T co234.375 C ANSWER

U 1U 2
OHTC reduction x 100
U1

qUA T lm

Assume one pass tube heat exchanger; since no change in heat transfer area and heat transfer rate

q q
A1A 2

U 1 T lm 1U 2 T lm 2

T lm 1
U 2U 1
T lm 2

T lm 1
U1U 1
T lm 2
OHTC reduction x 100
U1

T lm 1
OHTC reduction100 1
T lm 2

T hi T coT hoT ci 70403025

T lm1 13.9528 C
T hi T co 7040
ln ln
T ho T ci 3025

ENGR. RONNIE V. FLORES Page 2

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SERIES: HEAT TRANSFER
SOLVED PROBLEMS

T hi T coT hoT ci 7034.3754525

T lm2 27.0649 C
T hi T co 7034.375
ln ln
T ho T ci 4525

13.9528
OHTC reduction100 1
27.0649

OHTC reduction 48.47 ANSWER B

ENGR. RONNIE V. FLORES Page 3