Heat Exchanger

A heat exchanger is an apparatus by means of which heat can be transferred from one medium to another. The two media used can either be both gaseous, both liquid, or one of each (solid would work as well). The applications for heat exchangers are extremely diverse. IGEFA WEINBRENNER energy solutions specializes in the design, manufacture and assembly of heat exchangers in the food, brewing, and beverage industries, the energy sector, building technology and chemical and petrochemical industries.

Generally, heat exchangers are made from metals. Especially in industries in which food safety plays an overriding role, stainless steel heat exchangers are often employed. Beyond that, heat exchangers can also be made from enamel, glass, plastic or silicon carbide.

The performance of a heat exchanger is very much dependent on its flow arrangement and the way the materials used are directed towards one another. They can be channeled through a counter, parallel, or crossflow. In the most common type of exchanger – the recuperator – the media flow separated from one another due to a partition.

Examples of recuperators:

• Double pipe heat exchangers
• Coaxial heat exchangers
• Coil heat exchangers
• Shell-and-tube heat exchangers
• Pipe register heat exchangers
• Plate heat exchangers
• Spiral heat exchangers

Regenerators, for instance – unlike recuperators – work discontinuously. The principle used here entails that a hot and a cold medium alternately flow through the heat exchanger. Primarily, this principle is employed when it comes to gaseous media. This way thermal energy can, for example, be temporarily stored and later transmitted to another medium, e.g. air, from the same surface.

Another principle often used is the direct contact of both media. An everyday example for this would be a cooling tower, in which thermal energy from heated water is directly emitted into the ambient air.