Tubular heat exchangers for vegetable oils processing
As shown in our website applications section, SACOME has extensive experience in the design and manufacture of heat exchangers for vegetable oils processing. It is worth mentioning that, within this sector, a large part of the projects carried out by SACOME are linked with palm oil.
In this sense, after the successful installation of hundreds of tubular heat exchangers for the processing of palm oil around the world (mainly in Southeast Asia) for more than 30 years, SACOME keeps on showing its strength in the vegetable oil sector after the recent award of an order for the manufacturing of 5 shell and tube heat exchangers for a large project developed in Angola. The heat exchangers models chosen by our technicians for the different processes have been our tubular heat exchanger I-TFM-I and our tubular heat exchanger I-TFMP-I.
Tubular heat exchangers for palm oil processing
The vegetable oils processing field is certainly a sector having special characteristics, for which an in-depth know-how of the complete process of refining vegetable oil is required. This is due to the fact that the thermal properties of the oil and the solids content or fouling can differ greatly depending on the stage of the production process in which the product is being treated. In addition, these aspects may have a significant influence on the configuration of the tubular heat exchangers.
Specifically, in this project SACOME has designed and manufactured 2 oil / oil heat recovery units, an exhaust steam condenser, a shut-down cooler and an oil heater. In the heat recovery section, the palm oil flow rate is around 20,000 kg / h on both sides, while in the heater the palm oil capacity is significantly higher (approximately 140,000 kg / h).
SACOME has taken advantage of its long-standing background in these vegetable oil applications to provide a compact and drainable design, as always based on our own technology of corrugated tube, thus allowing to increase the turbulence and improving the coefficients of thermal transfer. As a result, the required exchange area is lower and, therefore, a more compact solution is achieved. In addition, following the customer’s specifications, in this case SACOME has supplied all materials from European sources.
The importance of rheology in the design of food plants
The importance of rheology in the design of any processing plant is crucial since the sizing of many of the elements composing it is very dependent on this “resistance”, also taking special relevance with food products: heat exchangers, pipes, valves, pumps, mixers, etc.
How to design a heat exchanger
To design a heat exchanger it is necessary to have certain data, such as the process flow rate, the temperature and the physical properties of products.
Hairpin heat exchangers
Hairpin heat exchangers have a more efficient and economical design compared to a multiple pass heat exchanger when the process requires a temperature crossing between the cold and hot fluid.