Written by Klaren International on June 8, 2016. 

Our newly developed single tube test unit, based on the self-cleaning heat exchanger technology, with skid has been sold to a mining company in the USA for testing the self-cleaning performance of the heat exchanger.

Every client process is unique and therefore a pilot test is required to determine the overall heat transfer coefficient and to demonstrate the self-cleaning performance. In the past, such a pilot represented a section of the planned full-size heat exchanger applying the same temperatures and ΔTlog. These pilots were equipped with a minimum of 7 tubes of same tube diameter and length, as planned for the full-size heat exchanger. To reduce the costs of a pilot test we have developed a test unit that consists of a shell and tube heat exchanger with only one single tube and a particle separation and recirculation down-comer tube.

In the single tube test unit liquid flow, particle flow, porosity of the fluidized bed in the heat exchange tube, type of particles and particle size can be varied independently. The heat transfer performance, i.e. k-value, can be measured with the instrumentation, and optimized as a function of all relevant parameters.