Heat exchangers perform a variety of functions in an array of industrial settings. Read on for a brief overview of heat exchanger applications.
Chemical and Petrochemical
Heat exchangers work in many capacities in both chemical and petrochemical plants, such as:
- Controlling the temperature of a feed to a reactor
- Preheating a feed for a distillation column
- Making use of cooling tower water
- Cooling oil for other pieces of equipment
Oil and Gas
In almost every stage of oil and gas processing, heat exchangers can be found:
- Cooling offshore platform and land rig equipment, such as generators, drilling brakes and mud pumps
- Cooling for gas compressor packages
- Gas and oil treating and conditioning
- Preheating air for combustion at refineries
Energy and Power Generation
Power generation plants provide critical service to thousands of customers, and heat exchangers play important roles in a plant, such as:
- Heating and or cooling of combustion air
- Fuel gas heating or treating
- Recovering waste heat from exhaust source
- Cooling water for various processes (component water, seal water, etc.)
- Condensing and/or evaporating process fluids
- Cooling lubrication oil for equipment
General Industrial
Heat exchangers play many parts in industry, and some of the names they go by include:
- Oil cooler
- Aftercooler
- Intercooler
- Air cooler
- Evaporator
- Condenser
- Reboiler
- Radiator