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Material for corrosive liquid heat exchanger

Strostkovy

Titanium
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
I have an interest in dye lasers but some of the gain media I'd like to try is very corrosive. Either the solutions themselves contain lots of chlorine ions, or need to be in an acidic solution to dissolve fully. I am intentionally vague on the fluids here because I want to use the same laser cavity for testing many fluids.

I would like to run the dye through a liquid to liquid heat exchanger to cool it with a regular chiller.

I so far am considering hard anodized aluminum (I can "clean up" any pores with high voltage in a baking soda solution) but am not super stoked for that idea due to the solubility of aluminum chloride. I considered a glass tube, which would work but would take a lot more surface area and therefore volume, and the liquids can be expensive. Stainless is an option, but I'm not so sure how well it will work and various platings are also possible. I know ceramics can have decently low thermal resistance, but I have a hard time finding hard data on actual available tubes.

The pumps and housings will be polypropylene and gaskets will be silicone.

Really just looking for some input in an area I am inexperienced in. The goal is a delta T of 10C max at around 100 watts average. Lower is preferred, as more power is more better, and that 10C differential is a condensation nuisance and potential freezing limit for certain operating conditions.
 
Corrosion is complicated. One size does not fit all. If PP is good for all the solutions you will be using, PP tubing is cheap. One metal or alloy probably will not be good for all solutions, and will not be cheap. Use a small diam to decrease the volume held and increase surface area, immerse one or several parallel coils of it in your temp control water bath
 
What type of heat exchanger? Low cost might be brazed plate 316ss. Or you could order special order monel. Some are constructed with an air gap so if it fails or leaks it will not contaminate the chiller. Lots of choices. You can get help from supplier's application engineer for proper application and sizing.
 
What type of heat exchanger? Low cost might be brazed plate 316ss. Or you could order special order monel. Some are constructed with an air gap so if it fails or leaks it will not contaminate the chiller. Lots of choices. You can get help from supplier's application engineer for proper application and sizing.

The most convenient would be a section of tube with a water jacket
 
The OP did not indicate the temperatures or pressures this vessel would see.

My recent experience with Chlorides affecting down hole oilfield equipment. Had a situation where the customer specified the materials to use. Unfortunately, portions of the pressure containing devices were turned into swiss cheese from chlorides attacking the base metals. We recommended they change the flow wetted parts of the tools to Inconel 925. Not saying that is what is needed here, just a example of what was specified and failed and replaced with a high nickel based alloy steel.

Ken
 
I tend to use sealed reservoirs and suction pumps on coolant systems to prevent leaks, so up to -5 psi from ambient is the max it could see, and likely much less.

I do actually have quite a few glass condensers I didn't think about. They are far too large but I could get smaller ones. From my use of them I don't recall them being particularly effective, but it's easy to run a test.
 
I did find that McMaster has some nonporous alumina tube with a thermal conductivity about 15 times that of glass or fused silica. It's still only about a tenth of that of aluminum, but I think it can handle 100 watts with only a few C temperature rise so I'll do some math after work.
 
You don't say how much surface area/contact area you need, but i have found that there are multiple sellers on eBay which have stainless pool heat exchangers made from either 304 or 316 and prices are entirely reasonable - have picked up a few around 18" long for inside of $200 for use in my lab.
 








 
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