Are Fouled Heat Exchangers Fouling Your Facility?: Improving heat exchanger performance and water treatment

摘要

District energy plants utilize several heat exchangers to transfer heat between different fluid systems (typically water or water/glycol blends). These exchangers are often of the plate-and-frame variety, which are susceptible to fouling and deposition from mineral scale, bacteria or iron due to corrosion elsewhere in the system. Water treatment quality and process flow control are two factors that can have a major impact on heat exchanger performance. If properly managed or engineered into new installations, these two aspects can make the difference between energy-efficient heat exchangers with minimal downtime for maintenance, versus repeatedly fouled exchangers that are energy-and cost-inefficient in terms of downtime, cleaning and maintenance.