Plate Heat Exchangers for Environmentally Friendly Heat Pumps

Abstract

Plate heat exchangers are now widely used in different industrial installations due to their unique characteristics important for process engineering. In recent years the use of plate heat exchangers for heat pumps has significantly increased, including the cases with natural refrigerants such as hydrocarbons, ammonia and carbon dioxide. The typical duties of plate heat exchangers in heat pumps with natural refrigerants are defined and acceptable types of plate heat exchangers for each duty discussed. The advantages of plate heat exchangers are very useful in units coupled with evaporators and condensers. In this case the proper selection of the plate materials taking into account the nature of the source of low potential heat for units coupled with evaporators is required. Proper prediction of fouling factor is also important for units coupled with condenser.