Nanoporous membrane tube condensing heat transfer enhancement study

A Transport Membrane Condenser (TMC), made from nanoporous membrane tube bundles, was developed to recover the water vapor and its significant amount of latent heat from boiler flue gases to improve boiler efficiency and save water. Experiments have been carried out to study the phenomena for both a nanoporous membrane tube bundle and an impermeable stainless steel tube bundle with the same characteristic dimensions. Flue gas streams with water vapor mass fraction 11.3%, temperature range from 65 °C to 95 °C are used for the experimental study, which covers the typical TMC waste heat recovery application parameter ranges. Results show convection Nusselt numbers of the membrane tube bundle are 50–80% higher than that of the impermeable stainless steel tube bundle at typical condensation heat transfer conditions. The parametric study has been done by varying cooling water inlet flow rate, water inlet temperature, flue gas inlet flow rate, inlet temperature, and inlet dew point. The condensing heat transfer enhancement effect gives a good perspective for using nanoporous membrane surface to design high efficiency condensing heat exchangers to recover both water vapor and its latent heat from high moisture content low grade waste heat streams.