How Significant Are The Energy Recovery Savings Available With PLATECOIL® Prime Surface Heat Recovery Banks?

PLATECOIL heat recovery banks in wet gas and liquid streams cut industry fuel bills significantly. At the same time, they knock out troublesome vapor plumes and reduce thermal load on effluent plants. Wet flue gas streams as low as 67°C (150°F) are a candidate for big savings from PLATECOIL heating banks. From such a moist exhaust gas stream, you can recover 10–20 MM Btus/hr or more of free heat energy.

You can capitalize from:

• Boiler or turbine exhaust
• Fry cooker exhaust (french fries, corn chips and other snack food)
• Rendering cooker exhaust (meat processing and rendering plants)
• Kettle exhaust (breweries and food canneries)
• Dryers
• Others—any application where fin tubes or tube bundles become fouled and/or difficult to service.

Here’s an example of $78/hour savings with PLATECOIL waste heat recovery.

PROCESS PARAMETERS

Savings Calculation

For a 150 psig boiler with 150°F feedwater, the steam tables show that it takes 1078 Btu to produce 1 lb of steam. Therefore, heat energy recoverable by the PLATECOIL Heat Recovery Bank is equivalent to the energy required to produce 20,872 lb/hr of steam. That’s an attractive amount of heat energy being recovered for productive use.

So then, how much natural gas would you be replacing by recovering this waste energy? We’ll assume a cost of $3/MMBtu for natural gas, and a thermal system efficiency of 85.7%.

($3/MMBtu / 106 Btu/MMBtu) x 20,872 lb/hr of steam x 1078 Btu/lb / 0.857 = $78.76/hr

For a project like this, it will not take long to recoup your equipment investment and start sending savings to your company’s bottom line. With this kind of performance, a project like this should  rise to the top of the list of possible energy conservation projects for funding.

Why not compile your process parameters for any moist exhaust gas flow and give us a call, or complete and return our Application Data Form for PLATECOIL heat energy recovery? We’ll quickly configure a system for your application and show you how much you can save!