Plate & Shell Heat Exchangers - Type XPS

Plate & Shell heat exchangers combine the, compact and countercurrnt, advantages of plate heat exchangers (Plate), coupled with the high pressure ratings of shell and tube heat exchaners provided by cylindrical shells (Shell). So, the best of both worlds. Heat transfer surfaces of 1 m² to 1000 m² enables thermal performance ranges from 10 kW all the way up to 100 MW (obviously dependant on the temperature driving force). The design parameters range from full vacuum to 400 bar (5,800 psi) and from -200 °C to 500 °C, so cryogenic LNG duties all the way to some gas turbine exhaust temperatures with everything else between.

• high performance with small surface area, weight and footprint by high heat transfer coefficients – reducing structural steelwork and facilitating skid assembly

• close temperature approach between the hot and cold side by multipass media, providing high heat recovery

• plate design provides a high wall shear stress, which acts as a self-cleaning effect – reducing fouling and extending the time between cleaning

• small installation and surface area due to compact design

• Low cost for steel structures and foundations by a low weight of the equipment

• fully welded design eliminates gaskets, ensuring high reliability and resistance to failure and leakage, as often experienced with gasketed plate and frame units

• wide range of plate materials provides high corrosion resistance

• low liquid inventory provides a rapid start-up and a fast response to changes in process set points and upsets

• range of plate and nozzle sizes, combined with flexibility of shell design and number of nozzles provides optimized solution

• shells can be tailored to increase the volume, for evaporating and condensing duties, such as kettle reboilers
  

  
  

Designs of XPS - Heat Exchangers

Plate Pack

The "heart", the core component, of Plate & Shell heat exchangers is the plate pack.

Basic configurations: Heater & Cooler

XPS plate heat exchangers can be easily configured for heating and cooling of both liquids and gases. The heating or cooling media can be put on the plate or on the shell side. For maximum heat transfer media are arranged in countercurrent flow, for pressure-loss-optimized applications cross flow is preferred. When the thermal duty requires a large thermal length (high NTU), then a multi passes configuration is required. Heating steam is usually on the shell side as larger connections reduce pressure drop on the vapor side and smaller nozzles are possible for condensate outlet.