Calorplast All-Plastic Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers for Chemical Process Industries
Heat exchangers are one of the most important and widely used pieces of process equipment for the chemical process industries. Throughout the chemical industries there is always the need to control the temperature of corrosive liquids or to condense corrosive gases as part of the chemical process. A heat exchanger is a device used to efficiently transfer energy from one fluid into another fluid. Hence there are many types of heat exchangers employing tubes or plates through which the two process streams will flow. They then exchange the heat between the streams.
Heat exchangers for corrosive media
When handling corrosive media such as hot sulfuric, hydrochloric, and hydrofluoric acids, proper material selection and design of the heat exchanger is critical. The elevated temperatures of the acids make them extremely corrosive to most metals. Due to potential for corrosion, exotic alloy metal-tubed heat exchangers have been developed in an attempt to provide corrosion resistance for an acceptable service life of the equipment. Therefore, these exotic metals are difficult to weld and work with and are extremely expensive with each having their own limitation. Additionally, minor amounts of contaminating elements such as chlorides or sulphates can render even an exotic alloy heat exchanger not usable.
All plastic heat exchanger technology
To provide the ultimate in corrosion resistance, Calorplast has developed an innovative heat exchanger technology. This technology is an all-plastic construction on both the shell side and the tube side of the heat exchanger. The material of construction for Calorplast heat exchangers can be PFA, PVDF, or polyethylene (PE-RT) thermoplastic. Calorplast all-plastic heat exchangers can be used for temperatures from -40°F to +300°F. Each Calorplast heat exchanger is custom designed for maximum flow efficiency to minimize surface area and pressure drop. The patented injection over-molding provides a permanent weld between the heat exchanger header and the tubing. Calorplast all-plastic heat exchangers have proven they are the ideal solution for heating or cooling of all corrosive media.
For smaller flowrates Calorplast utilizes shell and tube heat exchanger to either heat or cool various process streams. For larger flowrates, we use our tubeplate heat exchanger. The entire heat exchanger is manufactured from the same plastic material so there are no seals or gaskets used anywhere in the design. Furthermore, for energy recover or condensing of a higher flowrate vapor stream Calorplast gas-water heat exchanger have been used widely for various applications.
