Plate type heat exchangers

[zipthetrip]

our company makes bloody mary mix and our process begins by mixing all ingredients in a steam jacketed kettle. we heat to 200 degrees f and then send the finished product through some cooling tubes and then to a holding tank. From the tank to the filler and then into bottles for shipment. We want to switch to pet bottles but our fill temp is around 160 f and that makes pet bottles soft and then all we have is a mess. I talked to an old guy up in Canada and he said that there is a way to heat and then cool in a space of about 5 feet and that was to use a plate type heat exchanger. Has anyone used this type of method before? If so, how did it work out. Pros? Cons? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[HEC]

Plate heat exchangers are good. They are used everywhere in the food and beverage industry. The PHE is a good compact heat exchanger. talk to APV or Alfa Laval (Tetra Pak).
There are a few rules that need to be followed. As one mode of failure is for plates to crack either a double plate or pressure diferential controls should be used. An option to consider may be using the PHE as a regeneration heater to preheat the cool/cold ingredients going to the kettle. Although that would require a second kettle if the current process is batch. In short with a PHE it could be configured for any process requirements.

Mark Hutton