Direct-contact heat exchanger for swirling countercurrent flow of hot gas and finely divided solids: A parametric study

A vertically oriented solid-to-gas direct-contact heat exchanger (DCHX) has been proposed for heat recovery in high temperature plants that process finely divided solids. The flows are countercurrent, with the inlet gas flow entering on the centerline and swirling strongly. Swirling enhances heat transfer and centrifuges the solid particles from the center to the wall in order to minimize entrainment and permit gravity separation. A computer program was written to calculate particle trajectories and heat transfer rates (and, therefore, temperature profiles) for gas and solid phases. The flow model considers interactions between the particles and the flow field of the gas. The results of the computer program showed that the introduction of swirl significantly reduced the vertical distance required to achieve a given thermal efficiency. The countercurrent flow arrangement achieves high thermal efficiency in one contacting stage, unlike existing cocurrent suspension preheater systems, which require four or five stages. The practical application of this design to the cement industry appears unlikely, because very low gas velocities and correspondingly large areas of cross-sectional flow are required to prevent elutriation of the 74 micron particles required for the chemical reactions. The computer program can be modified for spray-dryer applications by the addition of mass transfer terms and a spray-formation model. In addition, the concept of a swirling flow heat exchanger may be applicable to other processes in which larger and heavier particles are used.