Revamping Existing Severely Fouling Conventional Heat Exchangers Into a Self-Cleaning (Fluidized-Bed) Configuration: New Developments and Examples of Revamps

Abstract

The most elegant way to implement new technology in a particular process is by revamping an existing conventional problematic installation into an improved configuration, with the possibility of maximum use of existing components, like pumps etc., and the possibility of an immediate fallback from the new technology into the old proven technology, when necessary. When evaluating existing conventional fouling heat exchanger applications suitable for possible revamps, one might encounter typical design criteria that can be applied for the existing conventional heat exchangers, but that may not be acceptable for the design of self-cleaning fluidized-bed heat exchangers. However, in the past years, as a result of more research and development work, these dilemmas, which seriously hampered the market introduction of revamped heat exchangers applying the self-cleaning (fluidized-bed) technology, have been solved. As a consequence, this paper explains the progress that has been made in making the self-cleaning (fluidized-bed) heat exchange technology ready for a much wider scope of revamps and also gives examples of such revamps.