A condenser is a vital element utilized in industrial operations to transform vapors into liquids via the condensation process. By extracting heat from vaporized materials, a condenser enables their conversion into liquid state, which is essential for applications such as distillation, solvent recovery, and cooling of reactions.

These systems are offered in a range of designs, including surface condensers, reflux condensers, and air-cooled condensers, addressing the specific requirements of sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and food processing.

One fluid flows through the tubing, and the other passes over the tubing (via the shell) to facilitate heat transfer between the two fluids. The group of tubes is called a tube bundle and can be composed of many tube types such as longitudinally finned, plain, etc.

There can be many differences in the shell and tube design. Usually, the ends of all tubes are connected to plenums through holes in tube sheets. The tubes can be straight or U-shaped, called U-tubes.

Most shell and tube heat exchangers are either four, two, or one-pass designs on the tube side. This is the number of instances the liquid in the tubes flows through the liquid in the shell. In single-pass heat exchangers, the liquid goes in one end and out the other of each tube.

In power plants, surface condensers are often one-pass straight tube heat exchangers. However, two and four-pass designs are common since fluid can enter and leave on the same side.

There are often perplexes directing flow in the shell side, so the fluid doesn't cut through the shell side. This leaves poor low flow volumes.

A countercurrent heat exchanger is very efficient since it enables a high log average temperature difference between the cold and hot streams. Most companies nevertheless do not utilize two-pass heat exchangers with a U-tube because they can break easily and are more expensive to build.

To transfer heat well, tube material must have good heat conductivity. Because heat energy transfers from the hot to cold side via the tubes, there's a temperature difference through the tubes' width. Because of the tube material's propensity to expand at different temperatures, thermal stresses happen during operation. This is after any stress from high pressure from the liquids themselves.

Tube material also must be well-matched with both the tube and shell side fluids for long durations in the operating conditions to minimize corrosion. These requirements demand a careful choice of durable, thermally conductive, corrosion resistant, and high-quality tube materials.

Typically metals, like aluminum, stainless steel, copper alloy, non-ferrous copper alloy, carbon steel, Inconel, nickel, titanium, and Hastelloy. Fluoropolymers like PFA and FEP also produce the tube material because of their high resistance to high temperatures.

Many configurations of the parts can be considered. Three primary combinations are presented below.