Comparing the performance of plate-fin and spiral wound heat exchangers in the cryogenic part of the hydrogen liquefaction process.

Mathematical models that represent two heat exchanger technologies are developed and solved to compare their performances in the cryogenic part of the hydrogen liquefaction process. Key performance parameters such as volume, thermal match and hydrogen-conversion rate are discussed for heat exchangers that cool the hydrogen from 47.8 K to 29.3 K. The state-of-the-art technology used today is plate-fin heat exchangers where catalyst is filled in the reactive layers to speed up the conversion between the two spin-isomers of hydrogen. Another technology that is frequently used in large-scale plants for liquefaction of natural gas is spiral wound heat exchangers. If some of the wounded pipes are filled with catalyst, we show that the spiral wound heat exchanger technology can provide a viable alternative to plate-fin heat exchangers in the hydrogen liquefaction process.