Techno-economic study on compact heat exchangers

摘要

Compact heat exchangers (CHEs), including plate-fin, plate and spiral plate heat exchangers, are widely used in many thermal process systems. Under certain operating condition, the optimal heat exchanger with lowest cost and highest efficiency becomes the ultimate objective pursued by engineers and researchers. In addition, an economic evaluation can also possess a major impact on the selection of technical solution and project profitability. Therefore, it is important to use a proper techno-economic approach that may give enough references to choose an appropriate alternative. This paper gives an overview of the most common methods used in the techno-economic analysis of heat exchangers. Based on the optimum designs with the objective of minimum pressure drop, an optimal CHE is selected from the technical and economic standpoints. The material purchasing, equipment abrasion and power consumption have been considered comprehensively.