Shell and tube heat exchanger and method for removing volatile substances from a polymer solution

US8657921B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Styrolution GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Norbert Güntherberg · Speyer, DE
• Rainer Bardon · Schifferstadt, DE
• Hartmut Heinen · Ludwigshafen, DE
• Michael Sauer · Corning, US
• Ludger Leber · Schifferstadt, DE
• Wolfgang Fischer · Meerbusch, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 27, 2010
• Grant date: Feb 25, 2014
• Expiry date: Jul 28, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F28F13/003
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A shell-and-tube heat exchanger, for removing volatile substances from a polymer solution by degasification, includes a bundle of tubes arranged vertically and parallel to each other in a shell chamber through which a fluid heat-transfer medium flows. The upper end of each tube is fixed in an upper tube sheet and the lower end of each tube is fixed in a lower tube sheet, and the polymer solution flows through the tubes in the direction of gravity. One feature is that a multilayer woven wire fabric is attached to the top of the upper tube sheet. The finest meshed layer of the fabric has a mesh width of 50 μm to 1000 μm. The invention also relates to a method for removing volatile substances from a polymer solution by degasification in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger and use of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger.