Question
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What heat and mass transfer technologies are helping the industry lower Opex?
Apr-2024
Answers
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Jan Reneteau, Axens, Jan.RENETEAU@axens.net
Very high-efficiency heat exchangers are key to lowering the Opex of heavy energy consumption processes. While standard S&T technology can offer limited thermal performances, spiral tube heat exchanger technology greatly enhances thermal and hydraulic performances.
This technology has been used for many years in the cryogenic liquefaction industry. For more than 30 years, ZPJE has developed a unique state-of-the-art know-how of heat exchange calculation, hydraulic simulation, and mechanical modelling of spiral tubes design to enable this technology to be used in refining and petrochemical applications.The design of spiral tube heat exchangers consists of many tubes arranged in multiple layers of helical coils, around a centre pipe. This tube bundle is enclosed in a cylindrical pressure vessel. The fluid on the tube side and shell side flows in opposite directions, making the equipment a true countercurrent heat exchanger, allowing a heat transfer efficiency two to three times higher than conventional S&T exchangers.
The minimum temperature difference between the two fluids can be as low as 2°C, permitting the unlocking of heat integration opportunities in demanding process services. Those exchangers can be applied in reforming, aromatics applications and also in hydroprocessing applications where their high performance and high tolerance towards fouling can drastically reduce the Opex, allowing, in some cases, the end user to operate the furnace only during start-up phases.
The newly created joint venture between ZPJE and Axens named Nectis aims to promote the application of spiral tube heat exchangers in the refining and petrochemical businesses to help the industry lower its carbon intensity.
Apr-2024
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