SACOME has supplied a tubular heat exchanger for biodiesel heating to a company specialised in the management, treatment and recovery of oily waste for the production of sustainable biofuels.
The application required heating 4,000 l/h of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) to approximately 200 °C using thermal oil at around 300 °C. This is a demanding service, both because of the operating temperatures involved and the need to ensure stable, maintainable performance over time.
One of the main project requirements was to allow inspection access on both sides, as a certain degree of fouling was expected in both fluids. For this reason, a TEMA BEU configuration with U-tubes was ruled out, since it does not allow full manual cleaning of the tube side, and a TEMA BEW design was selected instead, with a removable single-pass straight tube bundle, corresponding to SACOME’s I-TFM-D model.
In addition, special attention was paid to the design of the sealing gaskets and to the selection of their materials, with the aim of making maintenance easier and reducing the complexity of these interventions throughout the equipment’s service life.
Good design does not only solve the process, it also makes everything that comes afterwards easier.
