Heat Transfer

An application has a viscous process fluid with some fouling expected. There are a number of possible heat exchanger solutions such as a standard shell and tube HE, a wide-gap gasketed PHE, a crossflow welded PHE, a corrugated tube HE, or a spiral HE. Although they can all be used, they are not always all equal to the task. If the obstructions were to be very large, then all of the plate variations may not be suitable. The best is likely a corrugated tube solution. 

One client approached us with a heating application using a special thermal oil in one case and water in another. This oil is not compatible with any gaskets yet he requested a gasketed plate and frame. Although they wished to use the same exchanger in both applications, this would require a large crossflow welded exchanger since the water duty requirement was large and gaskets cannot be used. The thermal oil application, however, was smaller so we advised the client to use two exchangers. One gasketed plate for the large water application and a small brazed plate for the oil application. This solution was far less expensive than the all welded variant.