As natural gas is compressed, the temperature increases significantly and must be cooled before it can be processed further. Current heat exchangers for this application are large and inefficient. The goal of this project was to design a more efficient and compact heat exchanger to be used in conjunction with OsComp's rotary, positive-displacement natural gas compressor. The design incorporated heat pipes as a means to improve the efficiency of the overall heat transfer. The design has a total footprint of 0.871 m^2, which is 21.5% smaller than an industry standard heat exchanger of the same specification (1.1 m^2). To demonstrate the feasibility of a heat-pipe forced convection cooler; a scaled-down test stand was manufactured and tested.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Holmes, Jessica Kristin
• O'Brien, Christopher Joseph
• Lam, Calvin K.
• Marx, Bradford R.
• Nelson, Andrew T.

Contributors

• Nelson, Andrew

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042512-123009

Advisor

• Evans, Simon

Year

• 2012

Sponsor

• OsComp Systems

Date created

• 2012-04-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright