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Quotes - Engineering - SalesThe Medium Sets the Surface Temperature
The second of those two questions is what separates the duties below. A utility stream tolerates a hot surface; a product stream burns onto it. That single distinction is why steam duty is mostly a control problem, glycol duty is a pumping problem, and product duty is a surface-temperature problem with a cleaning requirement attached to it.
- Steam to water. A temperature difference large enough that the selection is about controlling it rather than achieving it, which makes the control valve and the exchanger one design rather than two.
- Hot water and glycol. Closed loop, modest difference, undemanding until glycol enters it — at which point viscosity changes both the heat transfer and the pumping, so state the concentration.
- Product and ingredient heating. The stream is valuable, often viscous and frequently shear sensitive, and it will burn onto any surface hotter than it should be.
- CIP solution heating. Aggressive chemistry brought to setpoint quickly, in an exchanger that then has to be cleaned itself. One of the few duties where the unit is both the tool and the thing being cleaned.
- A close approach buys medium temperature. Reaching within a few degrees lets a cooler medium do the same work, which is what makes recovered heat or low-pressure steam usable on a duty that looks like it needs more.
- Say which constraint binds. If the medium is fixed we hold the surface temperature; if the outlet is contractual we will say what it costs in medium temperature. A selection made without knowing which one binds is a guess.
What Decides the Selection
The heating medium and its temperature, the flow and required outlet temperature of the heated stream, the allowable pressure drop, and whether the stream fouls. On product duty the surface temperature the medium produces matters more than its bulk temperature, because burn-on happens at the wall.
Why Mueller Suits Heating Duty
A plate pack gives a very close temperature approach, so a lower-temperature medium can still deliver the duty, which is exactly what protects a heat-sensitive product. Where the thing being heated is in a tank rather than a pipe, Temp-Plate puts the surface inside or outside the vessel instead.
Process Heating
Steam-to-Water Heating
Steam on one side, water on the other, and a temperature difference large enough that the exchanger selection...
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Hot Water & Glycol
Closed loop, liquid to liquid, modest temperature difference. The design is undemanding until glycol enters...
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Product & Ingredient Heating
Heating the product itself is a different problem from heating a utility. The stream is valuable, often...
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It depends on whether the stream flows. If the fluid can be pumped through an exchanger, a plate pack is more efficient and more compact. If it sits in a tank or cannot be pumped, Temp-Plate puts the surface where the fluid already is.
Because burn-on and product damage happen at the wall the product touches, not in the bulk fluid. Using high-pressure steam to heat a delicate product produces a wall temperature far above the target and shortens run time between cleans.
Yes, and it is common, but steam brings large specific volumes and pressure drop considerations that a liquid duty does not. Tell us the steam pressure available and the allowable drop, because both change the plate selection.
Usually by lowering the medium temperature and adding surface area. It costs more exchanger and less downtime, and on fouling duty that trade is almost always favourable over a season.
