PRINTED CIRCUIT HEAT EXCHANGER (PCHE)
PRINTED CIRCUIT HEAT EXCHANGER (PCHE)
(OP)
Greetings,
Anyone had any experience operating and designing printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE). From my understanding this kind of exchanger has the best overall heat transfer coefficient in comparison to other kind of heat exchangers and is the best gas-gas heat exchanger on the market today.
Anyone with experience in operation of these kind please tell us what is your feedback of this exchanger. In terms of maintenance, how well does this exchanger compares to regular shell and tube as well and plate and frame. Since the overall heat transfer is high then the amount of surface area for this unit is practically smaller thus the equipment footprint also is smaller.
The pioneer of PCHE, Heatric, claims that this unit is capable of replacing 3 stacks unit of STHE for gas-gas compression aftercooler by 80% which only requires single unit of PCHE vs 3 stacks unit of STHE.
Please share.
Anyone had any experience operating and designing printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE). From my understanding this kind of exchanger has the best overall heat transfer coefficient in comparison to other kind of heat exchangers and is the best gas-gas heat exchanger on the market today.
Anyone with experience in operation of these kind please tell us what is your feedback of this exchanger. In terms of maintenance, how well does this exchanger compares to regular shell and tube as well and plate and frame. Since the overall heat transfer is high then the amount of surface area for this unit is practically smaller thus the equipment footprint also is smaller.
The pioneer of PCHE, Heatric, claims that this unit is capable of replacing 3 stacks unit of STHE for gas-gas compression aftercooler by 80% which only requires single unit of PCHE vs 3 stacks unit of STHE.
Please share.





RE: PRINTED CIRCUIT HEAT EXCHANGER (PCHE)
Maintenance... well, you need to consider a strainer upstream of the HX but that's not the end of the world. They have very small channels, so once they foul the block up easily and require cleaning using UHP water jetting.
Depends on what you need them for really. They are great for saving space, but cost an arm and a leg to do so!
RE: PRINTED CIRCUIT HEAT EXCHANGER (PCHE)
Disadvantages: cost ($$$$) and the impracticality of cleaning
If a brazed or even welded plate type heat exchanger is a feasible option it is almost certain to be cheaper.
RE: PRINTED CIRCUIT HEAT EXCHANGER (PCHE)
Another option is all welded plate heat exchangers with wider plate spacings, which would be a better choice if you need some allowance for fouling and cleaning, but these may be limited to ANSI 300lb design pressures (the last time I used these, which is over 10years ago).
RE: PRINTED CIRCUIT HEAT EXCHANGER (PCHE)
The downside I see that the ability to cater for fouled services is absolutely disasterous and it's a mandatory to equip with an upstream strainer to filter out any particle more than the fluid channel. Not just that, in fact if your equipment has a tendency to stick to the channel due to temperature change (i.e. sticky fluid or wax like) then it's no use. But I gotta give it to PCHE for its ability to cater for gas-gas application.
On the other side, its rival, PSHE (plate and shell heat exchanger) is practically wipe out most shell and tube and plate and frame heat exchanger application. In Asia, PSHE is slowly picking up and some made its way replacing PCHE as well but the heat transfer coefficient is somewhere between 1500 - 5000 W/m2K depending on application.
I wish to see what other type than can beat out these two PCHE and PSHE.