Process water heating in a high pressure line

The Spanish headquarters of a major multinational company dedicated to the production of soluble coffee, cocoa, spices and dairy derivatives, among others, has contacted SACOME to request a system consisting of two I-TFM-I tubular heat exchangers intended for heating 20 m³/h of process water in a high pressure line of 16 barg.

In the first heat exchanger, the process water is preheated to ambient temperature, taking advantage of the condensates from the second heat exchanger, which are also at 16 barg and 205 °C.

In the second heat exchanger exchanger, in series with the first heat exchanger, the target temperature of 190 ºC for the process water is reached by means of steam at 16 barg and 205 ºC.

With this system of two heat exchangers in series, it is possible to reduce steam consumption by more than 20%, thanks to the use of energy from the condensates.

The SACOME’s team has designed and manufactured two I-TFM-I tubular heat exchangers with corrugated inner tubes. The client already knew about this heat transfer technology because in other systems in their plant it had been able to verify the best performance of corrugated tube heat exchangers against fouling, compared to an equivalent smooth tube exchanger.