Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

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Condensation of steam with high CO2 concentration on a vertical plate

Minghui Ge a,b, Shixue Wang b,⇑, Jun Zhao b, Yulong Zhao b, Liansheng Liu a
a
School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
b
Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Low and Medium Grade Energy (Tianjin University), Ministry of Education of China, Tianjin 300072, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of a non-condensable gas on steam condensation has been studied. From experimental and
Received 11 October 2015 theoretical studies to date, clear evidence of significant heat transfer deterioration by the non-
Received in revised form 5 February 2016 condensable gas can be seen. The deterioration varies with the concentration of the non-condensable
Accepted 9 February 2016
gas, geometric parameters, system pressure, etc. However, these data and correlations may be unreliable
Available online 15 February 2016
due to the high concentration of CO2 in the vapor mixture and lack of verification through experiments. In
this paper, a systematic investigation has been conducted for film-wise condensation using a vapor mix-
Keywords:
ture of steam and a high concentration of CO2. Some data were obtained on a vertical plate, with the aver-
Non-condensable gas
CO2
age vapor velocity of 1.2 m/s, CO2 mass fraction of 20%—94% and a pressure of 1 atm. The effects of CO2
Condensation heat transfer characteristics concentration and surface sub-cooling on heat transfer characteristics have been investigated. Moreover,
Vertical plate the relevant parameters such as gas/liquid film resistance were included in the description of the conden-
High concentration sation phenomenon. The developed correlation for steam and a high concentration of CO2, based on
experimental results, has a standard deviation of less than ±20%.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction gases [4,8], geometries [16–21,26–28], and flow patterns [6,29],

while only a few experiments involved the condensation heat
It is well established that the presence of even tiny amounts of a transfer process with a high fractional non-condensable gas
non-condensable gas produce a large reduction in steam condensa- [7,15,30–34]. The general trend the research follows is: attaining
tion characteristics. Theoretical and experimental explanations for a more reasonable experimental system design, and then increased
the impeding effects of the non-condensable gas have been given reliability of the measurement of variable parameters, especially
by many researchers to date. Most of the investigations have the temperature of the condensing plate, temperature of the bulk
involved the use of a non-condensable gas such as air or nitrogen vapor mixture, and gas–liquid interface temperature.
[1]. In case of CO2 capture and storage processes (namely CCS tech- For condensation of steam/non-condensable gas mixtures, sev-
nology), however, the CO2 gas serves as a non-condensable gas pre- eral experimental investigations have been conducted on a vertical
sent in steam, for either the amine absorption or calcium-looping plate by Al-Diwani and Rose [5], Legay-Desesquelles and Prunet-
methods [2]. The CO2 must be purified for deep burial, and the Foch [6], Huhtiniemi and Corradini [7], and Wei [8]. Al-Diwani
steam must return to the system for recycle. Therefore, the and Rose [5] found that the heat transfer coefficient increased with
research of steam condensation heat transfer with a high fractional an increase of total pressure under the conditions of 0–25% non-
CO2 gas has important application value for CO2 purification. condensable gas and 5–80 °C surface sub-cooling. The experiments
Since steam condensation with a non-condensable gas was and simulation results made by Legay-Desesquelles and Prunet-
quantitatively researched by Othmer [3] first in 1929, interesting Foch [6] over a flat plate have good consistency for both a laminar
as this phenomenon may be, it remains at present largely of aca- and turbulent boundary layer. Referring to the report from Huh-
demic interest even though there are possible other applications. tiniemi and Corradini [7], which is schematically drawn experi-
In particular, with the development of seawater desalination and mental data for condensation with a steam–air mixture on a
the nuclear power industry, the condensation heat transfer with plate varied from 0° to 90°, the heat transfer coefficient decreased
a non-condensable gas is becoming a research focus. Earlier results 15–25% depending on the concentration of the non-condensable
[3–31] studied few possibly trace amounts, of non-condensable gas. Wei [8] observed the appearance of the condensate film on a
vertical plate (50
50 mm) using air-R113 mixtures with various
air mass fractions between 0% and 2.6%.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 2227402567.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Wang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2016.02.008
0894-1777/Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
148 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155

Nomenclature

a constant in condensation surface temperature calcula- Greek alphabet

tion k thermal conductivity, W/(m K)
b constant in condensation surface temperature calcula- q density, kg/m3
tion g dynamic viscosity, Pa s
C CO2 mass fraction, % DT surface sub-cooling, K
cp specific heat d condensate film thickness, mm
g gravitational acceleration, m/s2
h heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2 K) Subscripts
L characteristic length, m b bulk
P pressure, atm cond condensation
q heat flux, kW/m2 conv convection
r latent heat of condensation, J/kg i vapor–liquid interface
R thermal resistance, m2 K/kW j temperature measuring point
T temperature, K l condensate
W mass fraction of non-condensable tot total
X mole fraction of non-condensable v vapor phase
x coordinate distance along the plate from the leading w wall surface
edge

Different from other thermal physical phenomena, the model- in a tubular channel. With a decrease in pressure of 30%, the heat
ing of condensation with a non-condensable gas on a vertical wall transfer coefficient for 2.5% mixtures decreased 20–50% more than
has been investigated in theory more than experimentally. How- those for a pure refrigeration medium. Dalkilic and Wongwises [20]
ever, the use of a semi-empirical approach in models of the con- presented experiments for film condensation in a tube with an
densation process has attracted increasing attention, due to its inner diameter of 8.1 mm. Data obtained under different non-
advantage for stronger generality. The two first published correla- condensable concentrations, condensation temperature, and mass
tions are from Uchida et al. [9] and Tagami [10]. Uchida’s correla- flux conditions were summarized into correlations to analyze the
tion is in good agreement with the condensation experimental dependence of a pressure drop on the heat transfer coefficient. An
results obtained by Sagawa [11]. All of these experiments were approximate approach to an analysis of film condensation in a ver-
conducted on a steel surface with an area of 140 mm
300 mm tical tube was proposed by Berrichon et al. [21]. The model was in
and a system pressure close to atmospheric pressure. Dehbi [12] good agreement with their experimental data for pure steam and
investigated the condensation of a steam–air mixture and steam– steam–air condensation in a vertical tube under high pressure.
helium–air mixture with a velocity between 1 m/s and 3 m/s. For Measurements with low pressure, on the other hand, yield a heat
the steam–air experiments, the variation of the heat transfer rate transfer coefficient decrease of 50% when the air concentration
with the non-condensable fraction is logarithmic. For a steam–he- was 4%.
lium–air mixture, the heat transfer coefficient deteriorated as a The steam condensation with a high fractional non-condensable
function of an increasing helium fraction, especially in the region gas has been performed based on different application back-
of low air fractions. Karkoszka et al. [13] proposed a correlation grounds. Experiments with non-condensable gases ranging from
depending only on g based on a facility with a 4.2-m high vertical 30% to 65% were conducted on a vertically mounted tube to eval-
wall. The condensation behavior under the presence of a non- uate the heat removal capacity of a passive cooling unit in a
condensable gas on the condensing wall height of 0.9–4.2 m was post-accident containment by Liu et al. [15]. Tong et al. [30] used
experimentally studied by Murase et al. [14]. An empirical formula a pin-fin tube in the condensation of pure steam and steam–air.
for the steam/air mass ratio was used to calculate the heat transfer He found that the enhancement ratio would maximally reach 1.8
coefficient under the conditions of q  L 6 40 kW/m (q is the heat with an air mass fraction larger than 90%. Zhu et al. [31] designed
flux and L is the height of the heat transfer area), and concluded a shell and tube condenser to evaluate the performance of the
that the effect of the falling liquid film is negligibly small. Steam steam condensation process with an air mass fraction from 34%
condensation performances on a vertical smooth tube have been to 81%. The overall heat transfer coefficient varied from 350 to
researched by Liu et al. [15]. With an air mass fraction of 30– 3000 W/(m2 °C), which has promising applications to the dewva-
65%, an empirical correlation for the heat transfer coefficient takes poration desalination process in the presence of a high fractional
the steam mole fraction, total pressure, and surface sub-cooling as non-condensable gas, and satisfies applicable requirements in
variables. industry. Caruso et al. [32,33] performed a study on the average
In addition to the plate form mentioned above, some researchers heat transfer coefficient for condensation inside horizontal and
have also selected other condensing forms. Ivashchenco [16] found inclined tubes, at atmospheric pressure and in a wide range of
that the heat transfer coefficient decreases so dramatically in the non-condensable gases concentrations. They showed that conden-
range of 0–5% compared with other non-condensable concentra- sation in the presence of non-condensable gases is not sensibly
tions for a steam–nitrogen mixture condensation on a vertical tube. affected by inclination, especially at high gas concentrations.
The effect of an interfacial shear for a condensation in a vertical tube From experimental and theoretical studies to date, clear evi-
has also been studied by Lee and Kim [17]. Oh and Revankar [18] dence of significant heat transfer deterioration by the non-
conducted experiments for a steam–air mixture condensation with condensable gas can be seen. The deterioration varies with the
secondary pool cooling, in place of the previous jacket cooling. Boh- non-condensable gas concentration, geometric parameters, system
dal [19] showed the dependence of air concentration on the R404A pressure, etc. However, these data and their correlations may be
 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155 149

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental system.

unreliable due to the high concentration of CO2 in the vapor mix- specific surface sub-cooling, so that the vapor could condense and
ture and lack of experimental verification. Therefore, a more exten- the heat could be transferred from the vapor to the condensing
sive systematic experimental investigation is needed. The present plate. A counter-current auxiliary condenser is adopted to con-
investigation provides new data for film condensation with high dense the excess of vapor by cooling water. The test apparatus
concentration of CO2 on a vertical plate. between the boiler and the section were well thermally insulated
with polystyrene foam. The system maintained at a positive test
2. Experimental apparatus and measuring method section gauge pressure of 2 kPa to minimize the intrusion of any
non-condensable gases.
2.1. Experimental apparatus K-type thermocouples were used for temperature measure-
ments. All thermocouples were calibrated in a high precision con-
The stainless-steel test apparatus, shown schematically in Fig. 1, stant temperature bath against a platinum resistance
consisted of a loop, with test vapor (CO2 gas and steam) generated thermometer. A T-shaped brass condenser block of
in an electrically-heated boiler (maximum power is about 12 kW). 20 mm
20 mm was utilized in the experiment, with a cooling
The vapor mixture was directed vertically upward through a calm- surface of 54 mm
54 mm, as shown in Fig. 2. Five equi-spaced
ing section before flowing over the vertical, water-cooled, test con- slots, 0.6 mm square, were machined axially along the condensing
denser block. The condensing chamber was made from stainless plate. Thermocouples were inserted in the slots to measure the
steel with a volume of 140 mm
20 mm
300 mm, and the flow outer condensing plate temperature. The distortion of the isother-
area was 140 mm
20 mm. Reducing pipes were located at both mal in condensing block due to the heterogeneous heat flux on the
inlet and exit of the test chamber to ensure uniform distribution condensing plate can be negligible according to the investigation of
of the gas mixture in the vertical direction. Excess vapor was con- Kumagai et al. [34]. As a result, the temperature distribution in the
densed in the auxiliary condenser below the test section and all the condenser block obtained by thermocouples during steam conden-
condensate was returned to the boiler by a plunger pump. Cooling sation can satisfy the one dimensional Fourier conduction law. In
water was supplied via an electromagnetic flowmeter and sprayed addition to the condensation surface and cooling surface, the
to the cooling surface to ensure the condenser block maintained a remaining surfaces were packaged with polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE), so that the heat flux and temperature gradient only
occurred in the direction of the block thickness.
To ensure film-wise condensation, the following procedures
were always completed before the installation of the condenser
block. The block was first polished using P800 sandpaper and rinsed
with distilled water. It was then cleaned by immersion for a few min-
utes in a 20 wt% sulfuric acid solution and then alcohol. Finally, the
condenser block was rinsed with distilled water again and carefully
installed in the test section. A standard syringe was used to supply an
approximate volume of 1 lL droplet onto the condensing plate. The
average static contact angle was 35.4°, as shown in Fig. 3.
Prior to measurements, the vapor mixture was vented to atmo-
Fig. 2. Configuration of thermocouple sensors installed in the condensing plate. sphere for an hour to eliminate air in the test section. The reducing
150 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155

Fig. 3. Contact angle measurements of condensing plate. Fig. 5. Physical model for the condensation of a vapor with a non-condensable gas.

2.2. Data reduction and analysis for system reliability

2.2.1. Mass concentration calculation of CO2

On the basis of the Gibbs–Dalton relationship, the gas liquid
equilibrium of CO2 and vapor can be obtained at atmospheric pres-
sure, as shown in Fig. 4. The mass concentration of CO2 gas under a
corresponding temperature could be obtained using the phase
equilibrium relation of vapor-CO2 mixtures.
The vapor pressure and temperature are measured at the inlet
of the condensing chamber. Three K-type thermocouples are
placed there in order to improve the measurement accuracy, and
the arithmetic mean value is considered to be the actual tempera-
ture of mixed vapor.

1X 3
Tb ¼ T jb ð1Þ
3 j¼1

where Tjb is the temperature of the mixture measured with the jth
thermocouple. Tb is the average temperature of the mixed vapor.

Fig. 4. Gas–liquid equilibrium of CO2 and vapor under standard atmospheric 2.2.2. Heat transfer coefficient
pressure. In this experiment, a linear fit to the temperature gradient of
the condensation block has been made, obtaining the condensation
surface temperature and heat transfer coefficient. The results are
calculated below:
valve used in CO2 supply system has the heating function. It can
assure the temperature of CO2 gas at almost 20 °C when flow into TðyÞ ¼ ay þ b ð2Þ
the steam generator. The velocity of the vapor mixture was in The heat flux can be defined as:
advance estimated by adjusting the heating power of the steam
@T
generator and the CO2 inlet mass flow, but finally was measured q ¼ kbrass  ¼ kbrass  a ð3Þ
by a stopwatch and glass cylinder. Normally it took about ten min- @y
utes for conditions in the test section to become steady after vary- The surface sub-cooling 4T is calculated as:
ing the heating power of boiler and CO2 mass flow. To obtain a
uniform variation of surface sub-cooling, the cooling water tem-
DT ¼ T b  T w ¼ T b  b ð4Þ
perature rise was controlled at 0.5 °C per minute by voltage The heat transfer coefficient is given by:
regulator.
a
During experiments, the ambient temperature and pressure, htot ¼ q=DT ¼ kbrass  ð5Þ
Tb  b
test section gauge pressure, cooling water flow rate, temperature
and pressure of the vapor in the inlet of condenser chamber, cool-
ing water inlet and exit temperature, and test plate wall tempera- 2.2.3. Condensate film thickness and interface temperature
ture were measured. Visual observation of the condenser block The condensate film thickness dl and the interface temperature
was also made through a glass window in the test section to con- Ti were based on the mixed gas condensation model [22,23] and
firm film-wise condensation. When necessary, a mica strip heater the experimental heat flux q. The physical model for the numerical
was used on the outside surface to clear condensate from the win- analysis is shown in Fig. 5.
dow for observation. To avoid condensation on other walls of the Both liquid film and vapor resistances to heat transmission have
chamber, other than controlling the heating power of the mica been accounted for by combining them in series to calculate the
strip to ensure the temperature of glass surface a little higher than total heat flux from the bulk to the wall:
the bulk vapor mixture, the condensing chamber is thermally insu- Ti  Tw
lated with polystyrene foam to assure the condensation occur only q ¼ kl ¼ hl ðT i  T w Þ ¼ ðhconv þ hcond ÞðT b  T i Þ ð6Þ
dl
on the surface of vertical plate.
 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155 151

where Tb and Tw are the bulk and wall temperatures, respectively

and hl, hconv and hcond are the liquid film heat transfer coefficient,
convection heat transfer coefficient and condensation heat transfer
coefficient, respectively.
The film heat transfer coefficient is calculated by Nusselt
equation:
" #0:25
g  q2l  r 0  k3l
hl ¼ ð7Þ
4  gl  ðT i  T w Þ  x

where r0 accounts for the condensate sub-cooling and the tempera-

ture jump across the film.
 
cpl  ðT i  T w Þ
r 0 ¼ r 1 þ 0:68 ð8Þ
r
The film properties involved in the equations are evaluated at
an intermediate temperature between that of the wall and the
Fig. 6. Reliability of the experimental system.
interface, so that the temperature jump across the condensate is
accounted for:

T l ¼ T w þ 0:25ðT i  T w Þ ð9Þ
From Eq. (7) the heat flux through the condensate film adjacent
to a vertical wall can be written as:
" #0:25
g  q2l  r 0  k3l
q¼  ðT i  T w Þ ð10Þ
4  gl  ðT i  T w Þ  x

Consequently, the liquid film thickness is:

 0:25
Ti  Tw 4  kl  gl ðT i  T w Þ  x
dl ¼ kl  ¼ ð11Þ
q g  q2l  r 0

where x is the coordinate distance along the plate from the leading
edge, with a value of 0.01 m applied in the calculation process of
this work.
The film thermal resistance is calculated as:

Ti  Tw 1
Rl ¼ ¼ ð12Þ Fig. 7. Repeatability and reproducibility of the system.
q hl
From Eq. (6) the gas resistance is calculated as:
2.2.5. Analysis for system reliability and repeatability
1 Experiments using pure steam were conducted with a steam
Rv ¼ ð13Þ velocity of 0.8 m/s only. Referring to Fig. 6, similarity was seen
hconv þ hcond
between the present heat transfer coefficient and the Nusselt equa-
As a result, the ratio of gas/liquid film resistance can be written tion indicating system reliability. For inlet CO2 concentrations of
as: 45% and 84%, experiments were performed twice to confirm
repeatability. The lines in Fig. 7 indicate that the reproducibility
Rv hl Tb  Ti
¼ ¼ ð14Þ is good.
Rl hconv þ hcond T i  T w

3. Experimental results and discussion

2.2.4. Analysis for the uncertainty of the measurement
The error in q is largely determined by the temperature gradi- 3.1. Condensate heat transfer characteristics
ent. In the temperature range of interest (0–100 °C), the K-type
thermocouples fitted the calibration data within ±0.1 K. The dis- Fig. 8 shows the dependence of the heat transfer coefficient and
tance between the points of temperature measurement has heat flux respectively, plotted against surface sub-cooling. In con-
±0.1 mm accuracy. The uncertainty of the measurement for exper- trast with the pure steam case, it is seen from the figure that pres-
imental results on this basis would too large for small temperature ence of the CO2 gas has significant influence on the heat transfer.
gradients. For the vapor mixture condensation experiment, to From the single curve, it can be found that for the CO2 mass frac-
ensure a higher reliability of the experimental results, we only tion in the range of 23.3–74.8%, the effect of surface sub-cooling
used data with a surface sub-cooling higher than 3 K in the concen- is thought to be higher. The effect of surface sub-cooling on the
tration range of 23.8–74.8%. The corresponding uncertainty for the heat transfer coefficient is relatively small when the CO2 mass frac-
heat flux and the heat transfer coefficient were 5.2–16.6% and 5.2– tion is higher than 74.8%. As a result, the condensation character-
19.2%, respectively. Data higher than 5 K were selected for a con- istics are changeless, i.e. the surface sub-cooling has a lesser
centration range of 84.0–93.6%, with an uncertainty of 7.0–21.0% effect on it. With the CO2 mass fraction of 93.6%, the heat transfer
for the heat flux and 7.1–22.5% for the heat transfer coefficient. coefficient is about 400 W/(m2 K). Moreover, the calculated con-
152 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155

(a) Liquid film resistance

Fig. 8. Condensation characteristics curves under an average vapor velocity of

1.2 m/s.

(b) Ratio of gas/liquid film resistance

Fig. 10. Variation curves of the thermal resistance.

Fig. 9. Variation of liquid film thickness with surface sub-cooling.

vective heat transfer coefficient of pure CO2 under the same

mixture velocity is only 19.3–19.8 W/m2K.
Fig. 9 shows that the liquid film thickness was basically main-
tained below 0.07 mm, meanwhile, the increase of the CO2 concen-
tration has little effect on the thickness of liquid film. For example,
the performance of the liquid film thickness reduces less than half
for a fourfold increase in CO2 concentration. Furthermore, a linear Fig. 11. Variation of the heat transfer coefficient with CO2 mass fraction.
relationship between thickness and surface sub-cooling was found
when the surface sub-cooling is higher than 10 K. However, for an
increase in surface sub-cooling below 10 K, the thickness increase nonlinear. Since the two resistances work together and the ratio
is greater than linear. of the gas/liquid film resistance increases as surface sub-cooling
The variation characteristics of gas diffusion layer resistance increases, the heat transfer coefficient shows a sharper change.
and liquid film resistance are shown in Fig. 10. For lower CO2 con- When the CO2 concentration is greater than 84%, the gas diffusion
centration conditions, the change of liquid film resistance is layer resistance dominates at, almost forty times that of the liquid
 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155 153

Fig. 12. Gas–liquid interface temperature Ti. Fig. 13. Variation of the condensation driving force.

film resistance. In addition, the ratio of gas/liquid film resistance

has a low surface sub-cooling dependence, which serves to explain non-condensable gas mass fraction, sub-cooling temperature and
the effect the surface sub-cooling has on the heat transfer coeffi- operating conditions. Comparisons with these correlations from
cient, namely, the heat transfer coefficient decreases as the CO2 Othmer [3], Meisenburg et al. [4] and Dehbi [12] (presented in
concentration increases. Table 1) are shown in Fig. 14. The relatively large deviation of more
Fig. 11 shows the variation of the heat transfer coefficient plot- than 300% between the present data and those from Othmer may
ted against the CO2 concentration. With an increase in CO2 concen- in part be due to difference in the kind of non-condensable gas,
tration, the variation of the heat transfer coefficient is at first vapor velocity, and tube diameter. In the case of Meisenburg, the
relatively high for a small CO2 concentration, then begins to condensation is outside of a vertical pipe with an air volume con-
decrease slowly for higher CO2 concentrations. This may be attri- centration from 0.1% to 4%. The data calculated from Dehbi are sig-
butable to the fact that as the drop of interface vapor partial pres- nificantly higher, 300–1000%, due to the experimental conditions
sure increases, the CO2 concentration increases, along with the of a non-condensable gas mass fraction of 25–90%, and a vapor
variation of the interface temperature, at the same surface sub- mixture pressure of 1.5–4.5 atm. Therefore, all above equations
cooling. It can also be seen from Fig. 12, at a surface sub-cooling are not acceptable for steam condensation with high concentration
of 40 K, the interface temperature decreases from 63.98 °C to CO2.
57.79 °C with the drop of 6.19 °C, while the CO2 concentration The heat transfer coefficient correlation for a CO2-steam mix-
changes from 23.3% to 42.8%. Nevertheless, the interface tempera- ture, therefore, expressed in the form of the Nusselt pure steam
ture decreases from 47.47 °C to 32.19 °C with the drop of 15.28 °C condensation expression is given by:
under the variation of the CO2 concentration from 62.7% to 84.0%.
However, due to the variation of the wall temperature, the actual
condensation driving force is relatively small compared to the htot 1:9864  0:4098 lnðC þ 16:2724Þ
¼ ð15Þ
increase of the CO2 concentration. As shown in Fig. 13, the conden- hp DT 0:18
sation driving force (Ti  Tw) decreased by 2.91 °C and 1.11 °C in
the above situations, respectively. Because the change of the liquid
where hp is Nusselt theoretical solution for pure quiescent steam
film resistance is relatively small, the condensation transfer coeffi-
condensation on a vertical plate, expressed in function of the sur-
cient can be represented using a concave curve.
face sub-cooling.
As seen in Fig. 15, the new correlation fits the experimental data
3.2. Development of a new empirical correlation well, and its uncertainty is less than ±20%. The ratio of htot and hp
decreases gradually as the surface sub-cooling increase. Especially,
Many researchers proposed semi-empirical correlations based the heat transfer coefficient is inversely proportional to DT0.43, dif-
on the experimental data and depended mainly on variables like ferent from that of a pure steam condensation.

Table 1
Description of existing correlations for condensation of vapor mixture.

Authors Equations

Othmer [3]
lg htot ¼ ð2:748  0:00471T b Þ  lg DT þ ðlog DT=3:439  0:926Þ  ½1:13  0:015T b þ lgð100X þ 0:505Þ

Tb = 373–383 K; X = 0–0.05
Meisenburg et al. [4] htot ¼ 0:670  ðk3 q2 gr=LgDTÞ
0:25
ð1=WÞ0:11 , W = 0.10–4.0

Dehbi [12]
htot ¼ L0:05 ½ð3:7 þ 28:7PÞ  ð2438 þ 458:3PÞ log W=ðT b  T w Þ0:25

(0.3 m < L < 3.5 m, 1.5 atm < P < 4.5 atm, 10 °C < Tb  Tw < 50 °C)
154 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155

(a) Comparison with Othmer[3]

Fig. 15. Comparison of experimental data with values calculated from correlation
(15).

(b) Comparison with Meisenburg[4]

be higher for CO2 mass fraction in the range of 23.3–74.8%. The
effect is found to be smaller when the CO2 mass fraction is higher
than 74.8%, and as a result the condensation characteristics change
more abruptly. When the CO2 mass fraction reaches 93.6%, the heat
transfer coefficient is only 400 W/(m2 K).
The liquid film thickness, liquid film resistance, ratio of gas/liq-
uid film resistance, interface temperature, and condensation driv-
ing force were calculated on the basis of experimental
measurements. The results show that the liquid film thickness is
less than 0.07 mm. A linear relationship between thickness and
surface sub-cooling was found when the surface sub-cooling is
higher than 10 K. However, the thickness increases sharply as the
surface sub-cooling increases when the surface sub-cooling is
below 10 K. When the CO2 concentration is greater than 84%, the
gas diffusion layer resistance is almost forty times that of the liquid
film resistance. The interface temperature and condensation driv-
ing force change linearly with the surface sub-cooling. Thus it
(c) Comparison with Dehbi[12] can be seen that conductive resistance of the liquid film for the
vapor mixture condensation controlled by diffusion is relatively
Fig. 14. Comparison of experimental data with values calculated from references. small. The condensation efficiency can’t be significantly improved
by just increasing the heat conductivity of the liquid film, but the
most important is the improvement of the diffusion mass transfer
4. Conclusions process of vapor molecules. Therefore, the strengthening mecha-
nism of vapor mixture condensation can come down to thinning
To provide new, accurate data for the condensation heat trans- the thickness of mass transfer boundary layer and promoting gas
fer of a steam–CO2 mixture on a vertical plate, experiments were mixing in the mass transfer layer.
conducted for a wider range of CO2 concentrations. The data show To compare with earlier experimental results, the present data
a large decrease in heat transfer performance with an increase of are arranged in the form of Nusselt-type expression, with an uncer-
CO2 concentration. The effect of surface sub-cooling is believed to tainty of less than ±20% for a condensation of the CO2–steam mix-
 M. Ge et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 75 (2016) 147–155 155

ture. The heat transfer coefficient is inversely proportional to [17] K.Y. Lee, M.H. Kim, Effect of an interfacial shear stress on steam condensation
in the presence of a noncondensable gas in a vertical tube, Int. J. Heat Mass
DT0.43.
Trans. 51 (2008) 5333–5343.
[18] S. Oh, S.T. Revankar, Experimental and theoretical investigation of film
Acknowledgments condensation with noncondensable gas, Int. J. Heat Mass Trans. 49 (2006)
2523–2534.
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