Patent ID: 8260126

Claim:
An axial flow, electrically heated fluid heat exchanger comprising: an elongated heat exchanger shell, said shell having a primary tube sheet with one or more electrical heaters extending through said tube sheet into an interior space in the shell, a first port in a side of the shell and one or more additional ports in the side or an end of the shell, said ports providing entrances to and an exits from the shell for fluid feed to the interior space in the shell below the primary tube sheet but exterior to the electrical heaters located within the interior space, a secondary tube sheet spaced from and above the primary tube sheet with a plenum space there between, the primary tube sheet, the secondary tube sheet and the plenum space comprising a first set of tube sheets, the one or more electrical heaters comprising protective tubes, at least one heater rod inside each protective tube, said one or more protective tubes having their outer surface at a first end sealed to the primary tube sheet and a second end spaced from the primary tube sheet having a closed end to form a fluid free space enclosing therein the one or more heater rods, said fluid free space being open to the plenum space, and at least one flow turning baffle located in the interior space below the first set of tube sheets and between one of said ports providing fluid entrance to the shell interior space and one of said ports providing fluid exit from the shell interior space.