Heat exchangers are used in virtually every manufacturing and production-based industry and from comfort heating in buildings to cooling of Data Centers to Food Processing heat exchangers. The vast number of operations and processes occurring within these industries necessitates an extremely wide range of heat exchanger designs to meet the specific needs of every possible process. Valutech partners with heat exchanger manufacturers that are global leaders in their fields of specialization to deliver innovative and efficient products with sustainable solutions. The team of specialists at Valutech have the tools and experience to assess your systems and equipment to deliver optimized process solutions with product expertise to keep your process running for the lifetime of their heat exchanger products. Their expertise spans shell-and-tube, plate, tube in tube and other styles of heat exchangers for virtually all processes in Industry, as well as residential and commercial HVAC applications — this article provides a brief overview of the heat exchangers they provide, their features, and how they provide custom solutions to suit their clients’ processes. 

Energy-Efficient Features and Strategies for all Industries

energy-efficient heat exchangers

Heat exchangers with energy-saving features are crucial in an industrial landscape where process optimization is at the forefront of sustainable operation within a changing financial landscape and fluid customer requirements. Heat exchanger efficiency refers to how well heat can be transferred from the service fluid to the process fluid and there are a number of design features that can promote higher efficiency. Basic features include using optimal plate materials and heat exchanger units with high plate surface area to heat exchanger volume ratios to reduce the energy input and space required to achieve the desired heat transfer. 

As an example in milk pasteurization, we offer multi-stage exchangers with heat recovery (Regen) sections for optimal heat recovery during the Pasteurization process

  

Valutech supplies heat exchangers from industry-leading manufacturers, such as Alfa Laval’s plate heat exchangers; some such features include: innovative plate patterns for improved fluid distribution across plate surfaces (giving access to more heat transfer surface area within a given volume) and the use of asymmetrical channels to promote higher efficiency while limiting pressure drop in applications with unequal flows. This result of these features is a significant direct increase in efficiency, as well as reduced fouling and extended unit lifetime to further promote energy and resource savings. 

Valutech also supports strategies for energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable operations with their heat exchangers. The following is some of the initiatives they support within their clients’ processes to promote energy efficient operations with an innovative heat exchanger lineup: 

  • Expert servicing of plate heat exchangers to maintain peak efficiency and reduce strain on process chillers. 
  • Recovery of exhaust gas heat for re-use in industrial and commercial processes with exhaust gas heat exchangers.
  • Replacement of shell and tube Type heat exchangers with more efficient plate type heat exchangers compatible with process needs.
  • Using compact heat exchangers to realize energy savings in combined heating and power (CHP) applications.
  • Recovering excess heat from municipal and industrial wastewater for district heating applications, and repurposing waste heat in industrial processes.
  • Recovery of waste heat from data centers for greenhouse heating, space heating, and irrigation water production applications.
  • Regularly servicing plate heat exchangers used as interchangers in high-rise buildings to maintain efficient boiler operation and reap energy savings.
  • Using heat exchangers as interchangers with open cooling towers.

Industrial Heat Exchangers

Virtually every large-scale industry relies upon heat exchangers for fluid heating, cooling, evaporating, condensing, and other duties. A brief list of such industries includes: chemical and petrochemical processing, renewable power generation, steel manufacturing, food production, pharmaceutical, mining, plastics, automotive, aerospace, metal finishing, textile industries, and furniture manufacturing. Valutech-supplied plate-and-frame and shell-and-tube units see widespread use as chemical processing units, condensate coolers, high temperature hot water/steam generators, vapour and steam condensers, and liquid chillers, among others. Their heat exchangers are also used extensively in the industries mentioned above to support heat transfer applications using highly-specified fluids with varying mechanical and thermodynamic properties, including phase-change applications. Some examples of how these heat exchangers are used include:

  • Condensation of unreacted ethylene oxide vapour from reactor overhead in ethylene glycol production. 
  • Cooling of high-temperature heat transfer oils in closed-loop systems used to cool casting rolls and other equipment in steel manufacturing processes.
  • Condensation of ethylene glycol vapours from reactor headspace to return condensed glycol in PET production. 

Custom Solutions for Your Process

Both plate-and-frame and shell-and-tube heat exchangers are specified to order, from size and heat transfer area, to materials, connections styles, and pressure vessel standards. Valutech specialists have extensive experience sizing and specifying custom heat exchanger solutions to meet clients’ heat transfer and pressure drop needs in a long-term solution that has plate and gasket materials capable of withstanding process conditions. Their plate-and-frame units are available in a wide range of gasket and plate materials, threaded or flanged connections with various metal linings, and epoxy painting for frame and pressure plates with custom coatings available. 

With an extremely large portfolio and customizability of plate counts, frame types, gasket styles, accessories, design pressures and temperatures, and the other parameters mentioned above, Valutech is equipped to provide optimized and sustainable plate-and-frame heat exchanger solutions for virtually any unit operation across all industries for their client network. They also work with shell-and-tube heat exchanger manufacturers to provide custom fabricated units to meet the heat transfer requirements of client processes and can specify additional features such as expansion joints to provide the optimal unit for nearly all industrial processes. 

The first step in selecting the right heat exchanger for your process is selecting the right supplier with the expertise to provide the optimal solution. Partnership with Valutech ensures access to a strong supply chain and a product lineup to suit the needs of virtually any application. This article is a brief introduction to how Valutech’s heat exchanger capabilities — for more information on how they can support all of your heat exchanger needs, please contact Valutech here, or see the full heat exchanger lineup here.