Guide to Heat Exchangers
This guide is designed for processors, production managers, and mechanical engineers to help in the heat exchanger selection process.
Download PDF Version
What Industries Use Heat Exchangers
Food, dairy, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries all use heat exchangers as part of an efficient, hygienic production process. To meet regulatory requirements, processes must be carefully controlled to maintain proper temperatures for pasteurization, filling operations, and food safety.
Food, dairy, and beverage applications
Heat exchangers reduce or eliminate microbials to make products safe for consumption and to prevent spoilage.
Heat exchangers also heat or cool products during a variety of processing stages, including filling, drying, and concentration. To meet processing requirements for products of varying viscosities, heat exchangers use innovative designs to maximize efficiency.
For example, plate heat exchanger technology is vital to maintaining the exact combination of temperature and holding time in a variety of applications:
- Milk and cheese milk pasteurization
- Ultra-high temperature sterilization
- Beverage and energy drink pasteurization
- Standard and pulpy juice pasteurization
- Beer wort heating and beer cooling
- Liquid egg processing
- Bottled water treatment
- Soups, sauces, and starch heating
- Ketchup and mustard heating and cooling
Pharmaceutical applications
Pharmaceutical applications require systems that maintain precise temperatures for specific durations to ensure product safety and integrity. Heat exchangers are an effective method of thermal control in a variety pharmaceutical processes:
- Water-for-injection
- Temperature control for purified water
- Cosmetic solutions
- Pharmaceutical combining and mixing
In all industries where heat exchangers are at work, current technologies have several essential functions:
- Maintaining consistent temperatures for pasteurization
- Heating cleaning fluids that remove residues from systems components
- Transferring heat without contaminating heated fluids
- Saving energy by re-using heated fluids to heat fluids in repeatable cycles
- Heating water for efficient cleaning-in-place (CIP)
- Inducing turbulence for self-CIP
Download PDF
This guide is designed for processors, production managers, and mechanical engineers to help in the heat exchanger selection process.