Average Heat and Electricity Bills in Winter
The development of shell and tube heat exchangers has met the requirement for larger exchange areas while maintaining a compact construction. These heat exchangers offer significant advantages, including corrosion resistance, outstanding heat transfer, extremely low-pressure drop, and space-saving arrangements when installed horizontally or vertically. The design of these heat exchangers allows for easy servicing and replacement of inner tubes.
The standard range includes shell and tube exchangers in various sizes with exchange areas ranging from 2.5 to 25 m2. The standard design features a glass shell, glass tubes, PTFE end plates and baffles, and either glass or stainless steel end covers. The tube bank is made up of single tubes sealed individually into two tube plates.
Fused glass heat exchangers are used for cooling and condensation and are entirely made of glass, with the exchange tubes fused to the jacket. This results in no seal points between the shell and coil, outstanding corrosion resistance since only borosilicate glass is the wetted part, and optimal conditions for producing pure products.
Silicon Carbide Shell and Tube Heat exchangers are used for high corrosive and/or high purity applications. Silicon Carbide has excellent corrosion and temperature resistance properties and can operate with a temperature difference of up to 200 degrees Celsius between the shell side and tube side. The exchange area typically ranges from 0.2 m2 to 25 m2, and these heat exchangers are used when graphite heat exchangers reach their limit. Silicon Carbide tubes provide excellent corrosion resistance for demanding applications and offer superb heat transfer efficiency, being about 70% more compact than glass equipment, which requires a lesser heat exchange area for the same heat transfer. The maintenance cost is low due to the easy removal of headers for direct access needed for cleaning or inspection on the tube side.
Glass installations are known for their high operational reliability and extremely low maintenance requirements. ATR employs modular construction with Schott Duran 3.3 borosilicate glass for chemical plant construction as it provides corrosion-resistant installations that can withstand temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius. Other corrosion-resistant materials such as glassed steel, tantalum, titanium, PTFE, and graphite are combined with Schott components to provide an optimal solution for a particular application or process duty.