Thinking of upgrading your tubular or plate heat exchanger? There are many reasons why such a move makes sound commercial sense, not least when it comes to improving efficiency. But there’s one particular area where Tetra Pak’s next generation of tubular and plate heat exchangers can deliver significant monetary savings – energy and utility consumption.
A commitment to improved sustainability
As a global leader in processing technology, Tetra Pak can provide many standalone components to optimise your operations – solutions that offer great value for money and improved efficiency. Processing technologies and services that reduce energy and water consumption are a big part of that, and sustainability was a focus during the development of latest generation of the Tetra Pak® Tubular Heat Exchangers and Tetra Pak® Plate Heat Exchangers.
“We looked at reducing consumption, and ways to reduce what it costs for our customers to run their unit,” says Jimmy Moons, the Global Commercial Product Manager for Heat Exchangers at Tetra Pak. “Lowering the amount of energy required for the same production output is great for more sustainable operations, but it also lowers your daily running costs.”
Innovation that saves you money
With the latest generation of the Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchangers, the R&D development led to a unique innovation - patent-pending Q corrugation on the inner tubes. “This corrugation leads to up to a 40% reduction in pressure drop, which can reduce your electricity consumption for the heat exchanger pump by up to 40%1,” says Moons. “And with less pressure required, you can use a smaller, cheaper pump than was previously required, saving you further costs and lowering your total carbon footprint.”
The Tetra Pak Plate Heat Exchangers have been similarly optimised. Thanks to a smoother pattern on the plates, and an optimised flow distribution, they deliver 15% greater heat transfer and require 10% less pumping power – both of which translate to less electricity required for the same production output.
Further savings in energy and cost
It’s not just thanks to innovation and new technology that the Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchangers and Tetra Pak Plate Heat Exchangers can reduce your energy and utility consumption – other design features and optional extras have been made with more sustainable operations in mind. Adding protective panels to one of the Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchangers reduces energy costs by up to 6%; add insulation behind those panels, and the reduction can be up to 11%.
The overall design and size of the Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchangers, particularly when considering P2P (product-to-product) tube insert types, also contributes to greater efficiency (and savings). With the product regeneration section increasingly growing in size it means the amount of steam required for heating – and ice water for cooling – is reduced. “Again, both of those are ultimately consuming electricity, so it’s saving you more money,” says Moons.
And the Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchanger sections equipped with P2P tube insert types are more efficient than product-to-water (P2W) tube insert types. Thanks to the higher energy regeneration of the P2P’s energy-saving, ultra-compact design, energy costs (cooling and steam) can be reduced by as much as 55% compared to traditional P2W designs.
A unique analysis tool
Further improving energy efficiency, and reducing operating costs, is the goal of our Energy Management service. An analysis and consulting service with the purpose of improving your production economy, Energy Management involves a plant visit once your heat exchanger is up and running to collect usage data and utilities costs – a heat exchanger specialist then analyses the improvement opportunities using an advanced calculation tool, with the results showing the impact on your operating costs of various proposed actions.
Increasing the heat recovery level is a hidden source of substantial yearly cost savings for many heat exchangers, and our calculation models for their energy efficiency optimisation can deliver significant monetary savings. For example, one dairy producer running a 40,000 kg/h milk pasteurizer was able to increase the heat recovery from 90 to 94 % - the effect on their total operating cost was a saving of €62,000 per year.
A standalone solution
There are many benefits beyond efficiency and cost savings when choosing Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchangers and Tetra Pak Plate Heat Exchangers as a central part of a line – not least our application expertise and local support. But as a standalone solution, they are easy to buy, install, operate, adapt, and maintain. A flexible solution that can be installed alongside non-Tetra Pak equipment, setting up one of our heat exchangers should, says Moons, be a relatively quick operation – “from just a couple of hours to a couple of days – they are typically not that complex to integrate.”
And being a robust and reliable solution, Tetra Pak Tubular Heat Exchangers and Tetra Pak Plate Heat Exchangers – like all our processing components – are designed to help optimise your operations as well as saving you money; proven technology that represents great value for money, backed by support throughout the component’s entire lifecycle and flexible financing options (credit or leasing).
“We like to understand what it is that each customer really needs from their heat exchanger, and configure a solution from there,” says Moons. “We understand that running costs are vitally important these days, just as sustainability is – that’s why we worked so hard to make our tubular heat exchangers and plate heat exchangers more energy efficient. They are a win-win solution for food and beverage producers.”
1. Power calculated with the following formula: P(kW) = Q*(H/10)*(Overall efficiency factor)
Q = Capacity in litre per hour
H = Total head (bar)
Production scenario 1:
Q1= 10,000 litre per hour
H1= 10 bar
Production scenario 2:
Q2= 10,000 litre per hour
H2= 6 bar (40% reduction in pressure drop)
P2/P1 = 6/10 = 60% therefore in the second scenario we can save 40% on the electricity consumption
