Rapid Evaluation of Plate Heat Exchanger Performance and Fouling Analysis in Epoxidation of Oleochemical at Pilot Plant Scale

Abstract

Rapid evaluation for plate heat exchanger is vital in energy-intensive chemical epoxidation as plant shutdown is not always feasible. In this paper, critical parameters for three different sizes of plate heat exchanger were determined based on temperature assessment via infrared thermometer. Extent of fouling was determined based on values of overall heat transfer coefficient, U0. Number of heat transfer unit (NTU) larger than 1.25 and Nusselt (Nu) higher than 50 was found to be efficient and had sufficient degree of convection for epoxidation. Furthermore it was found that NTU had a significant and nonlinear relationship with heat flux, q" and Nusselt, Nu for the duration-sensitive epoxidation. However in this study, LMTD showed insignificant difference with respect to plate heat exchanger performance.