MME 499 STATE-OF-THE-ART ENGINEERING REPORT

Plate Heat Exchangers

By Deb Williams 250016281
October 11, 2002

Background
Canada Composting Inc (CCI) is a company that uses anaerobic digestion to decompose
organic wastes. The BTA process (see Appendix I) decomposes waste to create compost
and biogas that can be converted into electrical and thermal energy. CCI has requested
that a heat exchanger be designed to resolve the current problems that are occurring in the
heat exchangers already in use at the facilities. The heat exchanger in the Newmarket
plant is a plate heat exchanger and has a problem with plugging. The heat exchanger in
the Toronto facility is of the shell-and-tube type. Although it does not have a problem
with plugging, it is not as efficient as the plate heat exchanger.
In the BTA process, a heat exchanger is needed to heat a multiphase pulp to a
temperature of approximately 37C so that it can be properly digested. Glycol that has
been heated from the excess heat of the cogeneration units enters the heat exchanger at
114C and transfers heat to the slurry to raise it to the desired temperature.

Introduction
Heat exchangers are commonly used devices that transfer heat from one fluid stream to
another without mixing the two streams. There are several different types including
shell-and-tube heat exchangers, plate heat exchangers, spiral heat exchangers, and
scraped surface heat exchangers. This report is going to discuss the engineering and
design of plate heat exchangers. Plate heat exchangers transfer heat by placing thin,
corrugated metal sheets side by side and connecting them by gaskets. Flow of the
substances to be heated and cooled takes place between alternating sheets allowing heat
to transfer through the metal sheets. (Martin 60).

Assembly
A plate heat exchanger consists of several
gasketed metal plates that are clamped
between a stationary head and follower
plate by tie bolts as seen in Figure 1. The
plates are rectangular with circular ports at
each corner in which the fluids may enter
and exit. A specially designed corrugated
surface is stamped onto the thin walled
plates. (Martin 60). Numerous plates are
arranged with gaskets that cause the two
fluids to be directed through alternating
spaces between the plates (See Figure 4).
A single unit can use up to 700 plates

Figure 1 Apparatus of plate heat exchanger

http://www.polarisphe.com/pdfiles/OM.pdf

giving an overall surface area of 2500m2. (Saunders 106).

Types of Plates
The most commonly used plate metal is stainless steel, although other materials such as
Hastelloy, Incoloy, titanium, nickel and tantalum can be used as well. In order to achieve
market success, each plate pattern must undergo extensive research, as well as technical
and commercial reasoning. The plates are mass-produced in many different sizes,
shapes and corrugation patterns. The two main corrugation patterns used are the
intermating or washboard type and the chevron or herringbone type. (Saunders 105).
Herringbone Type
The herringbone type is most
commonly used and is shown in
Figure 2. The corrugations are
pressed to the depth of the plate
spacing. This means that the two
adjacent plates will have
numerous contact points and will
produce a more turbulent flow.
Also, with the inclusion of
contact points the structure yields
a higher strength. This enables it
to withstand higher pressures.

Figure 2 Features of a herringbone type plate

http://www.ittstandard.com/pdf/BRZBRO.PDF

Figure 3 Washboard pattern

http://www.tmec.com/tmecadvisor_articles/APVarticleR2.pdf

Washboard Type
The washboard type (Figure 3)
operates
only
at
lower
pressures and requires a
heavier plate.
Transverse
corrugations are pressed to a
depth larger than the plate
spacing. As a result, a means
of maintaining the plate
spacing must be established.
This is accomplished by
dimples that are pressed onto
adjacent troughs and crests.
These dimples contact one
another to keep the desired
spacing.

Another commonly used exchanger similar to the plate heat exchanger is the plate-fin
exchanger. A plate-fin exchanger is a type of compact exchanger that consists of a stack
of alternate flat plates called parting sheets and corrugated fins brazed together as a
block. (Picon-nunez 919). A regular plate heat exchanger consists of one component
that has the corrugations pressed directly on the plate and therefore acts as a plate and a
fin. The plate of a plate-fin exchanger consists of two components: a plate and a separate
corrugated sheet. In a plate-fin exchanger streams exchange heat by flowing along the
passages made by the fins between the parting sheets. (Picon-nunez 919).

Figure 4 Flow of fluids through a plate exchanger

http://www.bellgossett.com/literature/SERVLIT/HEATTRA/HF0358B.PDF

Sizing
In order to correctly size a plate heat exchanger, several calculations must be computed.
The steps for the calculation of the surface area required are shown below. Although
more equations are needed to precisely size an exchanger, the steps below are a good
start. (See Martin 130 for complete analysis as well as for the equations listed below).
The required efficiency (or normalized temperature change) can be calculated as:
T T
1 = 1 1
T1 T2
where, T1 = Initial temperature of heating fluid
T1 = Final temperature of heating fluid
T2 = Initial temperature of fluid to be heated
The capacity ratio can be calculated as:

R=

( c p )1V&1
( c ) V&
p 2

where, 1,2 = the density of each fluid

cp1,2 = the specific heat of each fluid
V&1 & V&2 = the volume flow rates of each fluid
The heat duty can be calculated by:
Q& = ( c p )1V&1 (T1 T1) in Watts
The minimum number of transfer units is:

(1 2 ) (1 1 )
N 1, min = 1 where, LM =
and 2 = R 1
LM
ln[(1 2 ) /(1 1 )
The required transfer surface area can then be calculated as:
N 1,min ( c pV )1
Areq , min =
where k = the heat transfer coefficient
k

Smith lists the steps needed to size a plate-fin exchanger. They are listed below:
1.
2.

Specify exchanger duty.

Specify permissible controlling pressure losses. Usually it is the
LP side which is controlling, and the HP pressure loss may be
adjusted as necessary to maintain this condition.
3. Select surface geometry for both sides.
4. For the first fluid in steps of 50 over the range 500<Re<5000,
determine the forced values of Re for the other fluid, and
determine which values fall into the validity range for each fin
correlation. Then calculate the heat transfer for each Re.
5. Calculate pressure losses for each fin-cell geometry for each Re
corresponding to the above restricted validity range.
6. Construct the three E-L curves: one for heat transfer and two for
pressure losses (typically).
7. Determine the (E, L) co-ordinates of the two intersection points if
they exist, otherwise adjust the parameters appropriately and repeat
from step 2.
8. Select the right-hand intersection as the controlling design point.
9. Evaluate the non-controlling pressure loss, usually the HP side.

(Smith 101).

Advantages
The advantages that exist with the use of plate heat exchangers are as follows:
1) The heat transfer coefficient of the plates is very high. This is because the
plates are very thin, have a large surface area, and contain flow that is
turbulent. With a high heat transfer rate the exchanger will be more efficient.
2) The operational and maintenance costs are low due to low start up costs, high
efficiency, low space requirement and ease of cleaning.

3) Due to the design of the double gasket, the chance of the two substances
mixing is low.
4) Plates can be easily added or removed depending on the desired application.
5) The equipment is relatively low weight since it is not designed to hold large
amounts of the substances at one time.

Disadvantages
Although there are numerous advantages to the use of plate heat exchangers there are also
several disadvantages as well. The first disadvantage is that the gaskets cannot handle
corrosive or aggressive substances. The second disadvantage is that standard plate heat
exchangers cannot handle particulates that are larger than 0.5mm. This restricts the use
of heat exchangers with multiphase flow. If free-flowing-style plates are used, a slightly
larger particulate size of 12mm can be managed.

New Developments and Competition

Heat exchangers are constantly being examined in hopes of developing more efficient
models. A recent design includes an invention that is constructed as a standard plate heat
exchanger but includes at least one electrode plate. The electrode plate includes outer
electrode surfaces on each side thereof to produce an electric field. The effect of the
electric field is an increase in the heat transfer rate between the refrigerant and the heat
transfer fluid. (Patent 20020056546).
Another design similar to a standard plate heat exchanger includes flow rings. The
design consists of a plurality of stamped plates but on each plate a flow ring and an
extended surface fin structure is present. Each of the flow rings includes radial flow
openings for evenly distributing the fluid between the plates. The plates are stacked with
additional fin structure and ring pairs between each pair of plates, to achieve the thermal
requirements of the particular application. (Patent 20020050347). The advantage of this
design is that it is compact, has a low cost and is thermally efficient.
A parallel-flow heat exchanger is a completely different design concept that has the
important advantage of having a heat capacity that is 150-200% larger than that of
conventional heat exchangers. It is composed of headers combining or separating
working fluid, flat tubes that are the passages for the working fluid, and separators that
determine the path of the passages. (Chung 4774).
Another new type of heat exchanger is the lamellar heat exchanger for the utilization of
flue gas heat. It is especially appropriate for heating of the feed water for boilers and for
district heating network. (Kolev 1919). The best possibility to reduce green house gas
emissions is to use the waste heat of flue gases. For this purpose, a recently designed
lamellar heat exchanger with a very low pressure drop can be used. It is shown that this
invention surpasses all existing technical solutions from an economical point of view.
(Kolev 1919). The lamellar heat exchanger has a simpler apparatus, which gives it the
advantage of having a very compact construction and a low weight. A disadvantage of
this device is that it has a larger pressure drop for the gas phase.

Conclusions
The heat exchanger that is to be designed for CCI would benefit greatly by including a
technology that would make it more efficient. The best way to accomplish this would be
to find a better heat transfer medium with a shape that will keep the exchanger from
plugging. The new designs listed above would be appropriate if the fluid under
consideration were only one phase. The digestate that must be used in the heat
exchangers for CCI consists of small particles. Since the investigations on the new
designs did not include information concerning multiphase fluids it is unknown if they
would lead to further problems with plugging.
It can be concluded that the problem with CCIs plate heat exchanger is that the
corrugations on the plates are too close together for the intended use with multiphase
flow. In order to solve this problem, an entirely new system would likely have to be
purchased. The only way to use a plate heat exchanger in the design would be to use a
concept that includes free-flowing style plates. As mentioned above, free-flowing style
plates are specially designed to be able to handle particulates up to 12mm in size. Further
analysis would have to be completed in order to conclude that this is the most efficient as
well as the most economical solution. It is likely (but not certain) that a different type of
heat exchanger will have to be used.

REFERENCES
Butterworth, D. Condensers and Their Design. Two-Phase Flow Heat Exchangers.
Ed. S. Kakac. Dordecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987. 779-828.
Chung, Kilyoan. Optimization of the design factors for thermal performance of a
parallel-flow heat exchanger. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
45 (2002) 4773-4780.
Ferraro, Alan. "Finding the Best Heat Exchanger." Process Heating 26 Oct. 2000.
Business News Publishing Co. 2002.
http://www.process-heating.com/ph/cda/articleinformation/features/
bnp__features__item/0,3156,66059,00.html
Ferraro, Alan. "How to Recover Heat with Plate Coil Heat Exchangers." Process
Heating 11 Feb. 2000. Business News Publishing Co. 2002.
http://www.process-heating.com/ph/cda/articleinformation/features/
bnp__features__item/0,3156,14189,00.html
Kolev, Dimitar. Performance characteristics of a new type of lamellar heat exchanger
for the utilization of flue gas heat. Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002)
1919-1930.
Martin, Holger. Heat Exchangers. Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation,
1992.
Paykoc, E. Basic Relationships for Heat Exchangers. Two-Phase Flow Heat
Exchangers. Ed. E. Paykoc. Dordecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987. 2980.
Picon-Nunez, M. "Surface selection and design of plate-fin heat exchangers." Applied
Thermal Engineering 19 (1999): 917-931.
Saman, WY. An experimental study of a cross-flow type plate heat exchanger for
dehumidification/cooling. Solar Energy 73.1 (2002): 59-71.
Saunders, EAD. Heat Exchangers. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1988.
Smith, Eric. Thermal Design of Heat Exchangers. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons,
1997.

Patents Referenced
Beulow Nielsen Pontus, Bermhult Rolf. Plate heat exchanger. WO0148433, issued July
5, 2001.
Donald C. Hainley, Stanley J. Coughlin. Multi-plate heat exchanger with flow rings. US
Pending Patent 20020005037, filed May 2, 2002, pending.
John F. Judge, Keith E. Starner. Plate heat exchanger assembly with enhanced heat
transfer characteristics. US Pending Patent 20020056546, filed May 16, 2002,
pending.
Joseph Paul, James Harvey. Method of making continuous corrugated heat exchanger.
US 6,438,840, filed May 30, 2001, issued Aug. 27, 2002.
Raymond F. Fuerschbach. Plate type heat exchanger. CA 1276009, filed Sept. 8, 1988,
issued Nov. 6, 1990.
Reinhard Lehmann, Uwe Hachmeister. Plate heat exchanger. US Pending Patent
20020074112, filed June 20, 2002, pending.
Ronald David Conry. Improvements in plate heat exchangers. CA 2151129, filed Dec.
6, 1993, issued June 23, 1994.
Vladimir L. Goldstein. Corrugated Plate Heat Exchanger. CA 1315558, filed Aug. 11,
1987, issued Apr. 6, 1993.

APPENDIX I