Preliminary
considerationsFor illustration of the viability of this methodology and todetermine whether 25% covered CSA could provide enoughtubes to form multiple small columns, the case given inMaretto and Piccolo (1998) is taken as a basis, where anindustrial reactor of 7 m in diameter and 30 m in height isconsidered. In this example, the specific exchange surfacearea per unit volume (aw) is given as ∼30 m2/m3(heat transfercoefficient = 0.39 kcal/m2s K). For a 25% of the total CSA of thecolumn covered with internals, one would need 18,987 tubesof 1diameter each, or 4746 tubes of 2diameter each or 1186tubes of 4diameter each.Now, using the new design with multiple compartmentsformed by the heat exchanging tubes, for 1tubes and 6IDcircular bundles, ∼20,000 tubes would be needed in the reactorfrom the example above; while one would need less than 6750tubes for 2diameter tubes also with 6ID circular bundles(see Spect, 2009, for calculation details).