Heat Exchangers with hiTRAN to reduce fouling
Fouling is one of the most common heat exchanger problems within all sorts of industries causing issues for process engineering staff around the world. The continuous research of fouling mitigation solutions means one day people might have a solution to all of the fouling problems. Fouling can be caused by a range of issues within heat exchangers and it can be very hard to determine how fouling was caused within any given heat exchanger.
The main characteristics of fouling are dictated largely by the properties of the thermal and hydrodynamic boundary layers. Fouling mitigation strategies have to take into account the conditions which might be in place within the region. hiTRAN wire matrix elements are one of the very best tools for altering conditions near the tube side wall within heat exchangers. hiTRAN works best within laminar and transition flow regions although can be implemented within any heat exchanger.
Heat transfer enhancement devices have become accepted as a method of enhancing heat exchanger performance, reflected in higher throughput or to meet new operating requirements. The uptake of heat exchanger enhancement devices depends on more than just the reported improvement in duty. Process engineers who use the enhancement technologies can be very reluctant to adopt them if there is a significantly increased risk of long term failure due to fouling within the heat exchanger.
In some cases of using tube inserts to reduce tube-side heat transfer resistance, it is not unreasonable for a potential customer to suppose that the increase in the surface area of metal inside the tube will result in any increase in the available sties for fouling to build up, and so an increase in fouling. This fallacious nothing, combined with a standard system that is already prone to fouling, makes many plant engineers reluctant to even consider the use of tube-side inserts.
In reality, the effort of hiTRAN wire elements on both thermal and hydrodynamic boundary layers can usually result in significant fouling mitigation and so further performance benefits over their use. hiTRAN has been used in a range of heat exchangers to help reduce the risk of the buildup of fouling and has also helped reduce the risk of fouling within tube-side exchangers.
