cooling of hot oil
cooling of hot oil
(OP)
I have a small plate exchanger that I am using to cool an oil stream from 222 degC to 100 degC using cooling tower water at say 20 degC. Initially the exchanger had temperature control on the water side and worked great but scaled up on the water side. It ws replaced with identical unit, the water flow was set to full on without control to prevent scaling. It worked for about a month and again scaled up on the water side.
My question is: any suggestions to a better or more appropriate method of cooling the hot oil?
Thank you.
My question is: any suggestions to a better or more appropriate method of cooling the hot oil?
Thank you.





RE: cooling of hot oil
2) this service has a large temperature difference, thus i am not surprised at the fouling that has occurred. try using demineralized water, but even this water needs to be cooled. it may be possible to increase water flow?
3) air cooler
-pmover
RE: cooling of hot oil
Cooling water can start to create scaling problems at temperatures much over 140F depending on your water composition so given this oil temperature, you might be well under a 'conventional' bulk water outlet temperature limit of 120F but be really cooking right at the heat transfer surface.
is it worthwhile to consider a small air cooled heat exchanger to precool the coil? Another option might be a small cooling water booster pump to further increase water side flow through the unit.
RE: cooling of hot oil
Why was it necessary to replace the original unit? One of the features of PHEs is the ability to strip them down and scrub them clean, regasket if needed, reassemble and it's good as new.
Cheers,
John.
RE: cooling of hot oil
I hope there is some value in my suggestion.
RE: cooling of hot oil
Just to answer a few queries of other responders:
- the oil is a product and is hot coming from another process.
- the original exchanger was replaced because these are welded sealed units (our plant standard when dealing with these high temperatures). We tried descaling it but were unsuccessfull.
Thanks again.
RE: cooling of hot oil
RE: cooling of hot oil
This can be calculated as shown in the thread <A HREF="Thread391-39755