There are many reasons for the fouling and clogging of plate heat exchangers. If clogging or fouling occurs, it will not only reduce the heat transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger, but also make the heat exchanger lose its heat exchange effect in severe cases.

So, how should we avoid scaling or clogging?

For fouling, because the plate has a large number of supporting contacts, it is designed to disturb the medium (make the medium turbulent to improve the heat transfer coefficient) and pressure support. It is a place where solid debris or fibers are easy to gather.

The side effect is that the fluid forms a local stagnation to generate dirt accumulation. The calcium and magnesium ions in the medium are easy to adhere to the accumulation after precipitation at a suitable temperature, forming a honeycomb-like scale.

Although clogging and fouling have different causes, the effects on plate heat exchangers are the same.

So how should we deal with fouling or clogging?

1. Plate heat exchangers should not be used in dirty or fouling environments (unless other effective measures are added).

2. When using unsoftened cooling water as the cooling medium, the operating temperature should be controlled at about 50°C or even lower to avoid the sensitive temperature of the precipitation of calcium and magnesium ions in the medium.

For domestic hot water (bath water), it is necessary to design a special temperature control system to control the temperature of the outlet water (bath water is not allowed to be softened or treated with other chemical methods) before the equipment can be used normally.

Qingdao RPT has decades of experience in selection and has a group of professional selection and design teams, who have in-depth understanding of the various conditions of heat exchanger operation and comprehensive considerations. In the selection and design , The greatest possible way to prevent scaling or blockage, welcome to communicate with you further.