Baffles for heat exchangers

A shell-and-tube heat exchanger comprising:

• a top end in fluid connection with a bottom end through a plurality of straight tubes with identical outside diameter, disposed within a shell;
• the top end comprising an inlet for a liquid and an outlet for a gas;
• the bottom end comprising an outlet for a liquid and an inlet for a gas;
• a heating fluid inlet and a heating fluid outlet in fluid connection with a shell-side space, in which the plurality of straight tubes is disposed;
• the shell-and-tube heat exchanger having a longitudinal direction and lateral cross sections, the longitudinal direction being parallel to the plurality of straight tubes and the lateral cross sections being perpendicular to the longitudinal direction;
• a plurality of baffles arranged in the shell-side space, wherein the baffles are substantially parallel with the lateral cross sections, each of the plurality of baffles comprising a planar assembly of a plurality of annular structures interconnected with bridging structures, said baffle made of metal, wherein said annular structures are designed for receiving a plurality of straight tubes of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger, wherein an outer diameter of an annular structure is less than 130% of an inner diameter of the annular structure, wherein said annular structures are positioned in at least two rows, wherein a row is staggered with respect to its adjacent row(s), wherein each annular structure is connected with all its adjacent annular structures by a bridging structure oriented along a line between centers of two adjacent annular structures, thereby forming a plurality of openings, with the annular structures positioned on corners of the opening;
• wherein each straight tube of the plurality of straight tubes is received within an annular structure of the baffles;
• and
• wherein the inner diameter of the annular structures of the baffles is equal to or greater than an external diameter of the plurality of straight tubes,
• wherein the plurality of baffles include disk baffles and doughnut baffles, each disk baffle being shaped as a disk, and each doughnut baffle being shaped as an annulus, the diameter of the disk baffles being equal to or greater than the inner diameter of the doughnut baffles, the disk baffles and the doughnut baffles being consecutively and alternatingly positioned along the longitudinal direction of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger,
• wherein the plurality of baffles comprises a first baffle stacked directly on top of a second baffle.