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The benefits of improving heat recovery processes

28 July 2023

Samuel Glover explains how and why the energy recovery capabilities of plate heat exchangers can make food processing systems more efficient and cost-effective.

With the ever-growing need to ensure food manufacturing plants operate at maximum efficiency, businesses are seeking ways to save energy. Often underestimated is the heat loss that happens throughout the line during food processing, so minimising energy consumption through a more efficient heat recovery process is critical to profitability in the face of increasing energy costs. 

Improving process performance and avoiding unscheduled stoppages can increase runtime and recovering more of the process heat currently dissipated into the atmosphere can reduce resource consumption.

Plate heat exchangers have a key role to play in food and beverage processing, especially in dairy, egg, breweries and other applications. With the use of regeneration sections in plate heat exchangers, energy savings can be achieved by reducing costs associated with water consumption and/or steam requirements.

Plate versus shell or tube
Plate heat exchangers are more thermally efficient than shell and tube units, especially for liquid applications such as milk processing. They perform better than alternatives at lower temperatures and velocities.

For most duties, the fluids also have to make fewer passes across the plates than required through tube or shell units. In many cases, the plate heat exchanger can do the task with one pass. With fewer passes, there is less pressure loss, and the pressure is used more effectively.

The plate heat exchanger provides the most economical solution for recovering heat. This degree of heat recovery cannot be economically achieved in a tubular exchanger since the presence of crossflow and multipass on the tube side causes the economics for tubular heat exchangers to become unattractive when compared to plate heat exchangers. The small size of the plate heat exchanger also results in space savings and a lower liquid hold up. 

Applications
Plate heat exchangers play a particularly important role in the dairy process. Heat transfer for the dairy industry is centered around hygienic and efficient design. The pasteurisation of milk and cheese products is vital to eliminating microorganisms within dairy products.  

As mentioned, the pasteurisation process is vital to increasing the shelf life of milk.  In addition, plate heat exchangers are used to cool milk immediately after milk truck reception, pre-heat before separating milk fat from milk and cooling immediately after pasteurisation.

Much like dairy processing, heat exchangers for beverage processing are focused on the pasteurisation of products. Juices require pasteurisation for the sterilisation of the juices for consumption. The challenge of designing a heat transfer system for juices is the careful process needed to retain the natural qualities of the beverage. Ensuring the taste, colour and nutrients are retained post-heat transfer is vital to modern beverage production.

The future
The plate exchanger has played a vital role in food processing history, particularly in pasteurisation. However, vendors are still innovating around the heat transfer concept today. From energy efficiency to usability, enhancements are constant, and sustainability is always top of mind. 

Samuel Glover is Global Product Manager – Plate Heat Exchangers at SPX FLOW.


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