All:
I have a general question about condenser orientation. What are the reasons for installing a condenser in the vertical position vs an inclined position?
Info about my specific situation:
* Current condenser is shell and tube, process is tube side, CW on shell side
* Process fluid is mostly H2O with about 4% formaldehyde in it. (There are also small amounts of potentially freezable components if a process upset occurs.) There is also some nitrogen, which is noncondensable.
*Current condenser is in an inclined position.
*Noncondensables are taken out at the outlet end of the tube sheet
*Process side is sub-cooled
I am 'copying' a current design for new installation in another location and am just wondering why this position was chosen. The folks I've talked to at work have all said that this orientation is very common in our application, and the reason they've given for inclined orientation is that it helps the exchanger drain better - which would also be the case in vertical position. (This is a very old installation, so all the folks that worked on this originally have long since moved on.) It makes sense to me that the exchanger would not be horizontal because of the risk of freezable components potentially getting held up in the exchanger if it doesn't drain quickly, but I can't figure out why you would go inclined vs vertical.
Thanks in advance.