Vahterus Plate & Shell Heat Exchanger

Vahterus Plate & Shell Heat Exchanger (PSHE) combines the compactness of a Plate Heat Exchanger with robustness of a Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger.  The core of our heat exchanger is a fully welded plate pack enclosed in a strong cylindrical shell. This means no leaking gaskets, and superior heat-transfer performance when compared to Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers. Many constructions, materials and plate size options make it possible to find the best fit for various heat-transfer duties.

• Compact and low weight
• Fully welded (so no gaskets)
• Heat exchanger technology for applications with high temperatures and pressures. 

Many traditional tubular heat exchangers are still used in the  process industry. In many cases, this is an excellent and fitting solution, but other techniques are often better suited to applications in the process industry. For decades, conventional heat exchangers such as Shell & Tubes were seen as the workhorse of the industry. Reliable solutions that have proven their worth, but at the same time they are large, expensive and have long delivery times. Kapp believes that many conventional heat exchangers are used in positions where PSHE can provide greater efficiency, reliability, and cost savings. We see cases where our solutions weigh 70% less, cost 50% less and recover more heat. That is why we feel we can have a huge impact and help existing plants improve efficiency.

A Plate & Frame heat exchanger could be an alternative, were it not for the fact that the design pressure of 70 barg is too high for this type heat exchanger. A PSHE is easy to open. The plate pack can be easily removed from the shell and cleaned, allowing the heat exchanger to maintain its efficiency over the long term. In this case, a Vahterus PSHE ensured that this application was possible at all, saving the end customer 1300 kW of energy.

In the energy sector, we see that developments are happening at breakneck speed and we love being involved in these kinds of projects. At one of our customers in the oil, gas and power industry, we were involved early in the design phase of a Hydrocracker plant and were therefore able to make a major contribution to the efficiency of the process.

To preheat its process water from an exegetically favourable residual stream, our customer had pencilled in two Shell & Tube heat exchangers (STHE), but we immediately saw that there were snags in this solution. Firstly, the technology was huge compared to the solution we had in mind. In theory, the process would also have been feasible with a STHE, but in practice the flow rates would be so low that the heat exchanger would barely function.

Not exclusively for this reason, a Vahterus Plate and Shell Heat Exchanger (PSHE) proved to be a better solution. Because a STHE would produce extremely low flow rates, it would not improve the heat transfer coefficient. And it would significantly degrade the reliability of the heat exchanger because low flow rates often result in fouling and hence corrosion.

The two STHE originally envisaged by our end customer had a combined empty weight of some 18,000 kg (24,000 kg in operation) and a length of more than 7 metres. Our solution, a Vahterus PSHE weighed only 1,100 kg (1,250 kg in operation) and measured less than 1.5 metres. Not only did this save a lot of energy in the production of the heat exchanger, it also saved a lot of material and energy for additional components such as piping, insulation and foundation.

Energy costs are often among the biggest expenses in industry. As energy demand increases, efficient heat exchanger technology is crucial. We see cases where our solutions weigh 70% less, cost 50% less and recover more heat. Result: lower CAPEX and OPEX.

• Proven suitable for many S&T applications
• Proven suitability for cyclic operations
• Always smaller than S&T
• Always lower CAPEX then S&T
• Resistant to extremely high temperatures and pressures
• Easy to clean

• Industry wide