Theory and Design of Counter Flow Shell-and-Coil Heat Exchanger for CO2Based Solar Water Heater

A shell type helical tube countercurrent flow heat exchanger was designed, fabricated and tested using CO2 refrigerant material. Helical copper tube was immersed in bulk water tank. Hot CO2 was piped to upper coil baffle and cold CO2 was circulated into collector loop through lower baffle. Cold water was made to enter through lower tap and hot water was taken out from upper tap. Both in/out pipes were inserted from the top and coil tubes from upper and lower sides of water tank. Supercritical thermosyphon operation was achieved by evacuated glass tube solar heat collector using CO2 refrigerant. U shaped copper pipes enveloped in aluminum foil were inserted in evacuated glass tubes to transfer heat under thermosiphon principle to upper header connected to inlet baffle of shell type helical coil heat exchanger. Lower header was connected to heat exchanger helical coil outlet baffle. Solar collector heat raised CO2 refrigerant temperature from 35 to 78C giving temperature difference of 43C. Temperature of CO2 refrigerant at exit from heat exchanger was found to be 40C at surrounding ambient temperature of 36C. Heat exchanger raised the inlet water temperature from 26 to 55C under off water tap condition in about 3 hours. Inlet and outlet temperature difference of heat exchanger was measured to be 27C. We believe system efficiency can further increase if we use the system in mild sunshine cold weather regions duplicating geothermal loop.