Is great to see that R&D is going on in the CHP sector, which in Italy is still having large opportunities to increase energy efficiency, with applications in the industry but also for medium-small utilities, such as SME and residential sites thanks to micro-cogeneration and microgrids.

The cogeneration is the combined generation of electricity and heat, through the thermal recovery from engine’s water jacket and from high-temperature exhaust waste coming from a primary fuel combustion source, using heat exchangers. The primary engine generators can be an endothermic engine, gas or vapor turbines, and in most advanced solutions ORC turbogenerators, micro turbines, fuel cells and Stirling motors. Beside traditional fossil fuels, cogeneration plants also employ biogas and biomasses, as well as hydrogen in fuel cell technology systems.

Tempco has many case histories and applications in the CHP sector, supplying equipments such as heat-exchangers/condensers, in corrosion resistant materials, high-efficiency radiators for heat dissipation and cooling towers, for evaporative condenser cooling. The Tempo range of solutions are installed in several points of the cogeneration process:

– Heat recovery units (T RECOGEN)
– Heat dissipation systems (T FIN ENGINE)
– Biogas treatment (T RECOGEN BIO)
– Biodiesel pre-heating (T START ENGINE)

L'articolo R&D in simulation models for cogeneration proviene da Tempco Blog.

Equipments are indeed exposed to frequent cleaning cycles, using aggressive and potentially corrosive chemical agents. The corrugation on plates creates several grooves and recesses where persistent residual biofilms can stuck, that must be removed in order too avoid growth and proliferation of microbes, fungus and bacteria.

An innovation showed at the last Hannover Messe comes from the INM Leibniz Institute for New Materials, in Germany, being nano-coatings that combine anti adhesive, anticorrosive and, on demand, antimicrobial properties, able to reduce the effort for cleaning heat exchangers, lowering the exposition to corrosion.

The researchers obtained anti-adhesive properties adding a hydrophobic compound similar to common Teflon. The nano-coating inhibit the formation of any biofilm, and allows residues to be removed more easily, before they clog up the transfer channels. Structures acting as a diffusion barrier in the coating inhibit the sensitivity for corrosion, while the employ of colloidal copper has an antimicrobial effect, preventing the proliferation of microbes.

The innovative nano-coating can be employed with stainless steel, steel, titanium and aluminium, and can also be adapted for special mechanical loads, preventing the amount of abrasion at points of contact in transfer surfaces, in presence of mechanical vibrations.

L'articolo Heat exchangers and nanocoatings in Food industry proviene da Tempco Blog.

Another precious technical topic in the Download section of the Tempco site refers to Localization of leakage in Plate heat exchangers.
Essential because fluids leakage in the plate pack compromises the correct working conditions of heat exchangers.

Is it important above all to check the plate pack thickness, comparing it to the original dimensions in the engineering project. Then, localizing the leak, usually involving:

– gaskets failure
– plates damages

Leakage near the gaskets zone can be connected to an improper positioning of the gaskets, or due to excessive tigthening deformation, as well as loss of elasticity for rubber aging or damages for chemical aggression or high temperatures attack.
Internal leaks are often caused by hole/cracks in a plate, due to corrosion and fouling or to mechanical damage.

And talking about fouling factor, we’ll soon face the issue in a next article…

http://www.tempco.it/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Leak_repair.pdf

L'articolo Leakage localization in Plate Heat Exchangers proviene da Tempco Blog.