Hydrogen is becoming one of the most promising solutions for a sustainable energy future. Refueling hydrogen vehicles requires precise temperature management to ensure safety and efficiency. PCHE heat exchangers offer an innovative and reliable solution to these needs.

Hydrogen refueling is challenging for a number of reasons: hydrogen must be compressed to extremely high pressures (up to 700 bar) to be stored in vehicle tanks. During this process, a lot of heat is generated; if it is not managed, refueling becomes slower and less efficient. This is where PCHE heat exchangers technology can be applied.

Several characteristics make PCHE exchangers so special, ideal to solve the challenges posed by hydrogen technologies. What are PCHEs? Imagine a compact and robust device capable of rapidly cooling fluids. Their usefulness in hydrogen applications has several aspects:

• They easily handle high pressures.
• They are small, so they take up less space at refueling stations.
• They cool the hydrogen quickly and precisely, speeding up the refueling process.

In the specific case of hydrogen refueling stations, the operation of PCHEs therefore adds value to a series of crucial steps to ensure the system’s efficiency and operational safety:

• During refueling, the hydrogen is compressed and then cooled by the PCHEs before entering the vehicle’s tanks.
• This process prevents the gas from overheating, making the process safer and faster.
• Simply put, PCHEs help refueling stations operate more efficiently, allowing drivers to refuel in just a few minutes.

To give a practical example, a refueling station equipped with PCHEs can refuel more vehicles in less time. This brings a series of key advantages:

• Time savings: less waiting time at the refueling station.
• Improved reliability: the system does not overheat and always operates at its best.
• Reduced operating costs, thanks to their energy efficiency.

Looking to the future of green mobility, the rise of hydrogen vehicles requires increasingly efficient refueling stations. PCHEs will be a key enabler of this growth, as their unique technology offers the ideal solution to overcome the challenges of hydrogen refueling. Thanks to their efficiency and reliability, they represent an investment in a greener and more sustainable future.

Find out how Tempco can support the growth of the hydrogen industry with dedicated innovative solutions. Contact us for a consultation or visit our dedicated website https://pche.it/en/.

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Gastech is the leading international event dedicated to natural gas, hydrogen, carbon capture, and energy transition technologies. The four-day event will bring together 50,000 energy professionals from over 150 countries, showcasing the latest innovations and cutting-edge technology solutions from over 1,000 exhibitors and 1,000 industry experts. All this to create a dynamic ecosystem focused on green innovation and energy sustainability.

Microchannel Devices, along with Tempco, will showcase its PCHE heat exchangers solutions, designed for high-efficiency applications in critical environments. The unique diffusion bonding manufacturing process allows these exchangers to offer excellent resistance to extreme temperatures and pressures. The chemical etching method used to create the heat exchange circuits on the exchanger’s plates allows for highly efficient heat transfer solutions customized to specific process requirements, including multi-stream operation for interstage cooling.

At the Microchannel Devices booth, it will be also possible to discover a scale model of the PCHE exchanger built for Rosetti Marino, the first example of a PCHE exchanger designed for lethal service in the oil and gas sector, already installed on an offshore platform.

Tempco looks forward to seeing you at Gastech in Milan, at the Microchannel Devices booth in Hall 18, space I110, to illustrate all the potential and advantages offered by PCHE exchangers for high-performance applications in the fields of green energy, advanced thermal engineering, and integration into future oil and gas systems.

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This important new order for Tempco confirms the growing attention this innovative type of heat exchanger is attracting. Therefore it leads to a broader reflection on the concept of a holistic approach to heat transfer systems. In fact, nowadays it’s necessary to go beyond the evaluation of the mere initial cost of a heat exchanger, as industrial thermal engineering involves a series of more complex challenges.

There are many factors to consider:

• Energy efficiency
• Installation space and compactness
• Reliability
• Ease of maintenance
• Reduced start-up times
• Sustainability of the investment

Given all these requirements, limiting the assessment solely to the economics of the initial cost of the equipment risks to provide a too narrow perspective. A holistic approach to thermal transfer systems is therefore needed, taking account of the entire life cycle of the system. This approach should consider not only the technology’s purchase cost, but also operating costs, potential system downtime, energy efficiency, and integration flexibility.

PCHE vs. Shell and tube: a comparison beyond price
A prime example is the comparison between PCHE exchangers and traditional shell and tube exchangers. At first glance, PCHEs may seem less competitive in terms of initial cost of the unit. However, a holistic analysis reveals a somewhat different picture:

Value is measured over time
A holistic approach therefore also includes considering the overall return of investment (ROI). Thanks to their high heat transfer efficiency, PCHEs reduce energy consumption and improve the overall performance of the production process they serve. In many cases, the initial cost pays off in just a few years, especially in sectors where every percentage point of efficiency makes a difference (hydrogen, cryogenics, power-to-gas, fine chemicals). Furthermore, in modular projects and applications where compactness and safety are crucial (such as hydrogen refueling stations), PCHEs represent the only possible technical solution.

Therefore, choosing the most suitable technology for a given application means looking beyond the initial purchase price. It means adopting a holistic view that takes into account the entire life cycle of the system, and not just the cost of the equipment. From this perspective, PCHEs, although more expensive to purchase, offer superior and sustainable value over time, making them the strategic choice for those looking forward to the future.

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Cogeneration plants involve different applications for heat exchangers, as they allow to further increase the efficiency of the process. The use of heat exhangers in cogeneration starts from the pre-treatment of the biogas, an operation aimed at eliminating the impurities and humidity present in the biofuel to preserve the engine, up to the heat recovery from the exhaust fumes of the engine itself using shell and tube exchangers, maximizing the amount of thermal energy that the system can generate.

In this case, the Tempco exchangers work both on the jackets, with a brazed plate exchanger, and on heat recovery from exhaust fumes, with a shell and tube exchanger.

After 11 years of work, the customer then called us requiring a replacement of the gaskets on the flanges, which had worn out over time. At the time of installation, Tempco had supplied the exchangers, while the customer preferred to rely on another supplier for the gaskets, although to be fair, these are anyway components subject to wear and therefore requiring maintenance.

Overall, we can say that we are very satisfied with the successful application realized for this customer.

L'articolo Exchangers in cogeneration plant operating for over ten years proviene da Tempco Blog.

But for this same sector it’s also possible to employ brazed plate heat exchangers, which are for sure less expensive but they also have very lower working condition limits. Anyway, they still can be a very efficient and effective solution up to certain temperature and pressure levels. Clearly, these are particular brazed plate exchangers, not copper brazed plate but nickel brazed plate or even brazed plate exchangers using a stainless steel filler. Therefore, these have no contraindications where fluids involved in the heat transfer can react to copper ions. That means there are no chemical compatibility issues.

These brazed plate exchangers can offer very good performances for quite high temperatures, 200, 300 or 400° C and some models can even be suitable for higher temperatures. But they can work at very much lower pressure levels compared to PCHE exchangers, and thus they can be employed only in certain applications where the pressure limit allows the use of these kind of brazed plate heat exchangers.

Finally, even these kind of exchangers, being fully welded, offer the advantage of a high sealing capacity, which means the advantage of being guaranteed as leaking and mixing free.

L'articolo Special brazed plate exchangers in hydrogen applications proviene da Tempco Blog.

The project represents a fundamental milestone, marking the entry of PCHE heat exchangers into applications for the offshore oil & gas sector, in addition to the various solutions already developed in the green energy and renewables sector and in particular hydrogen. After the signing of the contract at the end of last October with Rosetti Marino, for the development and production of a PCHE printed circuit exchanger intended for hydrocarbon sour gas cooling in the new gas recovery module installed on an offshore platform off the coast of Libya, Microchannel Devices is now very pleased to announce the deployment of the project and to share more details about it.

Rosetti Marino is among the most important EPC operators (Engineering, procurement & construction) active in the Oil&Gas sector for oil platforms. The company was looking for a manufacturer of large PCHE exchangers who would be able to create an exchanger compliant with the stringent requirements of the ASME standard for ‘lethal’ gas applications by mid-2025.

The order got underway thanks to the commercial support of Tempco, and the intense work of the MCD team led in a few weeks to defining a PCHE concept capable of satisfying all the requirements posed by the ASME regulation as well as by the end user ENI, by Saipem (main contractor) and RINA (third party inspection body). In this regard, the great support of ICIM‘s ASME representative has been also as precious.

Remdering of the large PCHE heat exchanger for an oil & gas offshore plant

MCD is therefore working to create its first PCHE exchanger for an offshore Oil & Gas plant, which will be over 3 meters long and weigh more than 8.000 kg. The exchanger will be made up of 5 blocks of photo-etched plates, welded using diffusion bonding technology with welding seams of specific geometry, specifically designed to allow 100% control using gamma rays.

The sizing of the exchanger was supported by thermo-fluid dynamic tests on dedicated specimens. The acceptance tests will involve the ability to test a vessel capable of containing hundreds of liters of gas or water, and of managing flow rates of 200.000 litres/hour. The machining and metal-working systems that MCD acquired in 2024 proved to be perfectly suited to the order, including a cutting machine and a five-axis machining center for the mechanical processing of the blocks, both capable of working large dimension components, and a second chemical etching line which in six weeks will allow to create all of the 2.600 channeled plates necessary for the construction of the exchanger.

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The possibility to work with extremely high pressures, up to 700 bar, guaranteeing high energy efficiency thanks to the micro-channel structure of the plates, also giving high desing freedom in order to customize the heat transfer circuits of the exchanger for specific application needs, leads to great reliability and durability of this type of exchanger. Essential characteristics in extremely challenging applications in the hydrogen industry, making it a potentially very interesting market for PCHE heat exchangers.

Therefore, here are some other advantages that PCHE heat exchangers offer in this type of applications:

• Compactness: their compact structure saves space, an important factor in hydrogen refuelling stations where space is limited.
• High thermal efficiency: the microchannel configuration offers a high heat transfer surface area, improving heat transfer efficiency.
• Versatility: PCHE heat exchangers can be used for a variety of fluids and operating conditions, making them highly adaptable to different cooling and heating needs.

In conclusion, PCHE heat exchangers are vital components in hydrogen refueling stations, helping to ensure a safe and efficient operation. Their ability to handle the heat generated during hydrogen compression, combined with their compactness and reliability, makes them a preferred choice for this application. As hydrogen infrastructure expands, the importance of this innovative technology will continue to grow, supporting the development of more sustainable and green mobility.

L'articolo Hydrogen, compact and efficient PCHE heat exchangers for green mobility proviene da Tempco Blog.

For some time now we have been talking about thermoregulation and temperature control solutions that Tempco has developed thanks to the use of PCHE exchangers: from hydrogen refueling stations for sustainable mobility, to temperature control in fuel cell technologies in hybrid powertrains of the most advanced zero-emission yachts. Up to pioneering applications that lie ahead in the oil and gas sector and safe nuclear energy field, with fourth generation reactors.

The Fields of Application section of the site offers an overview of the cutting-edge industrial sectors where PCHE exchangers are already used. On the Features page of the website dedicated to Tempco PCHE heat exchangers it is possible to discover in detail the distinctive technical features of this exchangers technology, which, thanks to the solid state welding process called Diffusion Bonding, differ from traditional welded exchangers. Diffusion bonding in fact gives PCHEs exceptional mechanical and structural resistance, allowing them to be used in extreme operating conditions in terms of high pressures and temperatures.

The special technique of chemical etching of the plates, similar to that used in the electronics sector to create printed circuits, also allows to create customized layouts of the heat transfer circuits on the plates of these exchangers, with total design freedom to obtain high efficiency heat transfer circuits customized for individual applications. Furthermore, it offers the possibility of creating PCHE exchangers also in multistream mode, to manage different heat transfers simultaneously with different flow rates, pressure drops, pressure levels and temperatures.

We therefore invite you to discover and deploy together with Tempco the application potential offered by the new world of PCHE exchangers on the new dedicated page at https://pche.it/.

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In this regard, the article dedicated to Tempco in last January’s issue of ICP magazine deals with PCHE (printed circuit heat exchangers). These special brazed plate heat exchangers are obtained thanks to an innovative solid-state diffusion welding process, called diffusion bonding, that makes it possible to obtain very compact heat exchangers, with very high efficiency and characterized by extreme robustness of the plate pack. PCHE exchangers are therefore able to meet the challenging application requirements of technologies that exploit hydrogen in fuel cells, being able to work at extreme pressure and temperature levels, in a range that goes from cryogenic temperatures at -250° C up to +400° C, or even higher using very particular alloys.

Regardless of the type of electrolysis technology employed, Tempco can therefore provide high-value thermal solutions for electrolysis equipment, electrolytes, working fluid cooling and heat recovery tasks. An interesting ongoing project involves the implementation of these exchangers for the cooling of power electronics in the zero-emission yacht Bzero built by Baglietto, which uses fuel cell technology with green hydrogen obtained from sea water.

L'articolo Heat exchangers, hydrogen, cooling and fuel cells proviene da Tempco Blog.

We all know that several kinds of plate heat exchangers exist: inspectable exchangers, brazed plate exchangers, fully welded plate heat exchangers and, furthermore, there is a kind of full inox plate heat exchangers which are made using this special processing technology called diffusion bonding.

In fact, this is an innovative welding process that allows to join two similar or different metals through a sort of permeation of the metals’ crystalline structure. And at much lower temperatures of those required for the melting process of the metals.

How is it possible? I’m not going too much in depth with details, which can be found online. Essentially, the exchangers are placed inside special furnaces, under vacuum conditions, where they reach temperatures equal to 65, 70 or 75% than the melting temperature and under pressure the permeation of the crystalline structure is achieved. Therefore, the process generates extremely resistant welding joints without material addiction and with no additional weight.

This special construction process has many applications in a variety of sectors including main sectors such as aerospace, oil and gas and also the hydrogen industry which is actually a really emerging trend sector.

These exchangers offer a lot of advantages and some disadvantage. Among the disadvantages is the construction process that increases costs, because it employs special furnaces and a very peculiar processing that requires long cycle times and thus higher costs.

On the side of advantages, the fact that these are exchangers made in a unique material and fully welded and so they offer a very high resistance to extremely high pressures and temperature levels. This technology can be applied both to stainless steel exchangers and in titanium, but also to different materials, where the technology becomes a little more complicated.

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