When considering upgrading your process system, it’s important to consider pressure drop. Pressure is the driving factor in your flow rate and is generated via the pump. Sometimes breweries or food process systems will upgrade processing components without considering the big picture: Can my pump handle the additional pressure losses? Replacing or upgrading pumps can be very expensive which, coupled with the cost of upgrading process equipment can quickly go over budget. A heat exchanger is a static process component; it doesn’t have any moving parts. Assuming proper cleaning of the heat exchanger, the pressure drop of the unit will not increase over time. When upgrading or re-streaming (extending or rearranging the plate pack of a PHE) your plate heat exchanger, consider how it will affect the pressure in your piping.

When re-streaming a plate heat exchanger or adding on to a process system its important to look at a few factors that will affect your pressure drop. How will expanding my unit or upgrading my unit affect my pressure drop? What additional piping will my process require?

First, when expanding your plate heat exchanger consider adding additional flow plates along with pass plates. Additional flow plates will increase the channel area for the process flow. This will provide more heat transfer area and a decrease in process pressure drop. Often when re-streaming units additional pass plates or sections are added to meet new process demands. Additional passes can significantly increase the heat transfer efficiency of a plate heat exchanger but comes at the cost of increased pressure drop. This is due to increasing the length the fluid must travel through the heat exchanger. This pressure drop increase can sometimes be offset by adding flow plates in each fluid pass of your heat exchanger. A small increase in heat exchanger size can save money in pumping power and operating costs over time. Consider talking to a Thermaline application engineer to see if this is the right approach for you.

Second, when considering expanding or altering your process system have a plan for the piping and plumbing. New equipment or altering existing equipment often requires updating current piping runs or installing new pipe runs. Any increase in piping length will result in a higher pressure drop. This increase in pressure drop requires more pumping power and consequently in higher operating costs. Have a plan for your new equipment and consider reducing the additional pipe lengths and fittings installed. New runs of pipe can come at a steep cost to pressure drop and can sometimes push a pump over its operating limit.

With the cost of upgrading or re-streaming equipment it can be devastating to realize that your pump can no longer handle the process. This can often times be avoided by planning new pipe runs to future equipment and reducing/upgrading existing pipe runs. When re-streaming or purchasing a new heat exchanger, look at your predicted pressure drop through the heat exchanger or request a consultation with a Thermaline Application engineer to determine how upgrading your unit will affect the pressure drop.