Square finned tube heat exchanger for flue gas heat recovery in wood mills

Square finned tube heat exchanger for flue gas heat recovery in wood mills

Flue gas heat recovery in timber mills is an environmentally friendly and energy efficient measure designed to utilise the waste heat (thermal energy in the flue gases) generated during the production process to heat other applications. This reduces energy consumption, lowers greenhouse gas emissions and improves the energy efficiency of the production process.

The realisation of heat recovery from flue gases in wood mills can be carried out in the following steps:

Flue gas collection: During wood production, flue gas is one of the waste gases produced which contains heat energy, usually at high temperatures.

Heat recovery devices: Heat recovery devices can be designed according to the temperature and volume of the flue gases, e.g. using heat exchangers or flue gas waste heat boilers. These devices effectively extract heat energy from the flue gas and transfer it to other media, such as water or air.

Waste heat utilisation: the heat energy in the flue gases can be used for a variety of purposes, for example:

Heating raw materials in production processes or other media in the process.

Providing building heating or heating office areas.

Power Generation: Steam is generated from the flue gas waste heat boiler, which drives a turbine to generate electricity.

System optimisation: Flue gas heat recovery systems require regular maintenance and optimisation to ensure that they operate efficiently. This includes checking the operational condition of the equipment, cleaning the heat exchanger surfaces, adjusting the control system, etc.

Square Finned Tube Heat Exchanger (SFTHE) is a common type of heat exchanger that is often used to increase the heat transfer area and improve the heat transfer efficiency. This type of heat exchanger consists of square metal fins that are placed over the surface of the tubes to form a finned tube bundle. The finned tube bundle is usually arranged in rows inside a vessel and the fins can be made of aluminium, copper, stainless steel or other materials with good thermal conductivity.

Principle of operation:

A finned tube heat exchanger uses the temperature difference between fluids to transfer heat. In this, one fluid flows inside the tube while the other flows outside the tube. The presence of fins increases the surface area of the tube, thus enhancing the heat transfer. The heat source (hot medium) passes through the inner tube and transfers the heat to the fins, through which it is then transferred to the cooling medium (or the medium being heated).

Applications:

Square finned tube heat exchangers are widely used in a variety of fields, including:

Industrial heating and cooling: used for heating and cooling fluids in chemical, petroleum, pharmaceutical, food and other industries.

Air conditioning and refrigeration systems: used in air conditioning and refrigeration equipment to aid heat exchange between refrigerant and air.

Power plants: In power plants, used for cooling steam, cooling cooling water, etc.

Automotive industry: in automotive radiators for cooling engine coolant.

Advantages:

Increased heat exchange area and improved heat exchange efficiency.

Flexible design, adapt to the requirements of different working conditions.

Can withstand high pressure and high temperature.

Relatively small volume, suitable for places with limited space.