5 troubleshooting tips for tubular heat exchangers

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October 6, 2016

5 troubleshooting tips for tubular heat exchangers

Like all equipment, tubular heat exchangers can encounter problems during their
lifetime. Leaks can occur, but what is most critical is if your end product becomes
contaminated. We examine some typical problems, and what you can do to avoid them.

Shortcuts can jeopardize food quality

The last thing you want is a problem with a heat exchanger that holds up operations or
affects product quality. Proper maintenance and cleaning can prevent many typical
problems.

“Respect the recommended procedures!” is the best advice for customers from Jimmy
Moons, Cluster Product Manager for Heat Transfer in Cluster Europe and Central Asia
for Tetra Pak. He sometimes observes how service engineers at the customer carry out
the services themselves and make critical mistakes, such as fitting the wrong gasket.
And sometimes services are not carried out on time or shortcuts are introduced for the
recommended cleaning-in-place procedures. “Shortcuts can jeopardize food quality,” he
says.

Sometimes he sees tubular heat exchangers used for applications they were not
designed for. “Whenever you change the recipe or product, it is always a good idea to
seek our advice to hear if this is possible,” Moons recommends.

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Five typical problems with installed tubular heat exchangers –
and how to avoid them
Based on his experience, he has identified five typical problems with installed tubular
heat exchangers – and has advice on how to avoid them.

1. Leakages due to poor service

Tubular heat exchangers typically have a service interval of 6,000 running hours, or two
years. The service should be carried out regularly at this interval by a qualified service
engineer. Using trained service engineers helps avoid mistakes like incorrectly replacing
old gaskets, which can lead to leakages.

2. Leakages due to incorrect gaskets

A Tetra Pak tubular heat exchanger has a large number of gaskets or O-rings. Different
types are used for different places, but they may look almost identical. Some are made
to resist high temperatures and some are not. It is important to use original gaskets
with the right rubber quality and marked with a product label and number for easy
identification. Then follow the instructions carefully. The right gasket has to be placed
in the right section of the unit for a heat exchanger to function properly without leakage.

3. Leakages due to corrosion

Though this problem is fairly uncommon, it does happen, and when it does it can be
very serious. For most food and beverage applications without salt, a heat exchanger
made of high-grade 316 stainless steel is sufficient. But suppose you decide later to use
the same heat exchanger for processing products with certain concentrations of salt.
The salty solution can attack this form of stainless steel, especially in higher
concentrations and at high temperatures. The result can be disastrous if a hole
forms and incoming product on the shell side becomes mixed with outgoing product on
the tube side. Always inform the manufacturer if you are planning to process salty
solutions such as sport drinks, salty types of yoghurt drinks or sauces containing salts.
In that case, an alloy of stainless steel containing a higher content of molybdenum
(SMO) is recommended.

4. Contamination due to poor cleaning

Proper cleaning according to the recommendations ensures the sterility of heat
exchangers. If you have a cleaning detergent and cleaning regime that works well, don’t
change it! Just by changing the cleaning agent or cutting the cleaning time, you may be
able to save money – but the cleaning could become less efficient, resulting in the build-
up of residues. That means unwanted bacteria can multiply and that you are not
sterilizing the equipment properly. Likewise, you can run into problems if the cleaning
is not performed at regular intervals. Therefore to avoid problems, cleaning of the heat
exchanger should always be performed according to the manufacturer’s recommended
programme for cleaning-in-place. Poor cleaning can jeopardize food quality.
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5. Pressure drop is too high
There can be a number of reasons for an increase in the pressure drop. Perhaps one
ingredient, such as a starch derivative, has been replaced by starch from another
supplier, and the viscosity of the product has changed. Ask the manufacturer for advice
when you change the product recipe and they should be able to upgrade or modify the
heat exchanger to handle a more viscous product. Whenever selecting a suitable tubular
heat exchanger, it is important for the manufacturer to know the exact physical
properties of the product. Tetra Pak can often do specific tests in its labs to arrive at the
exact viscosity properties of a customer’s product before designing a heat exchanger to
handle it. In this way, the flow rate can be maintained without unexpected increases in
pressure drop.

Interested in a service minimizing unscheduled downtime? Download

our PDF about equipment assessment.

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