Abstract
This article presents design analysis of a fuel oil preheater. The preheater is a concentric tube heat exchanger where the fuel oil is on the tube-side and the heating medium flows in the annular space. Two situations were addressed in this study. In the first case, an analytical model was developed where the required heat exchanger length, diameter and the fluid velocity were determined for a given heat transfer duty and for an allowable pressure loss. A detailed study was conducted by individually varying parameters such as pressure loss, preheater discharge temperature, and mass flow rate of the fuel oil. In each instance their influence on the predicted design of the heat exchanger was investigated. In the second case, an optimization strategy was proposed for a certain heat transfer duty. The heat exchanger dimensions and the fluid flow rate were selected such that the annual operating cost of the heat exchanger was minimized. In addition, a detailed study was conducted to understand the total annual operating cost as a function of the fuel oil outlet temperature and the fuel oil mass flow rate.