Why is a Pillow Plate better than a Shell & Tube or a PHE?

Click on the title to open our companion PILLOW PLATE ARTICLES:
A Brief Introduction to Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers
Advantages of the use of Pillow-Plates Heat Exchangers (PPHEs)
Pillow Plate Falling Film Evaporators (PPFFE)
Heat Recovery with Pillow Plates Heat Exchangers

Unilab PCOIL

UNILAB PCOIL is the Unilab continuous (Steady State) software to design and verify Pillow Plate Banks. PCOIL is divided by applications types in several calculation modalities.
With its wide array of calculation modes, PCOIL allows Energy Recovery calculations, ranging from applications with gas external to the pillow bank, to steam that condenses, to vaporizers using exhaust gas to createsteam. The Falling Film Chiller module, fluid-fluid or DX, uses specific conduction equations allowingto calculate the film thickness as a function of flow rate, size and distribution on the plates, and asa function of this thickness, to calculate the heat transfer coefficient. Air heaters, used for examplein seed heating, and Air Coolers applications, complete the Pcoil module.

Available modules

Energy Recovery

Gas To Fluid: it is a single-phase to single-phase application. We have gas on the outside, which can be air or fumes, and another fluid on the inside.
Steam Condenser: as the application suggests, we have steam that condenses.
Exhaust Gas Water/Steam: vaporizers using exhaust gas to create steam.

Falling Film Chiller

Falling Film Chiller Cooling: In this case, on one side we have water to be cooled, while on the other side we have a fluid, i.e.glycol water, which comes from other processes.
Falling Film Chiller Evaporating: this is a direct expansion application, so we have refrigerant.

Air Heater

As the word itself implies, an air heater is used to heat air. This type of exchanger is mainly used in seed heating. It consists of heating air using either steam (Air Heater Steam) or Oil (Air Heater Oil).

Air Cooler

Cooling: in this case, fluid inside the pillow is cooled down using air outside.
Condensing: in this case, a refrigerant inside the pillow condenses, using air outside.air outside

What’s New?

OPTIMIZED DESIGN

The design process has been radically optimized, and so has the influence of all geometric parameters within the exchanger.
The software allows to verify an existing PPHE as well as to design it, fixing some of the dimensional parameters in order to obtain a certain capacity.
It is possible to consider the orientation of the exchanger in vertical or horizontal. The checks allow you to set certain parameters such as plate height, plate width, and frame width in a fixed way, so as to keep some values in a fixed mask, keeping others free. If for example, the frame width is left free, setting the distance between one plate and another, the number of plates will be changed. It is possible to leave everything free, the design mode will find the heat exchanger that meets the user’s requirements. The program also allows selecting nozzles on one side and the other, automatically.
ENERGY RECOVERY ANALYSIS

For energy recovery applications, the user can also perform an Energy Recovery Analysis of the heat exchanger, evaluating the annual amount of energy recovered, the payback period and even the amount of CO2 recovered!
This analysis is performed with practicality, considering factors such as cost and weight of the material, commercial factor, energy cost, hours of operation per day, and days of operation per year. This analysis is essential when choosing a Pillow Plate Heat Exchanger for a certain heat recovery application and also to compare its costs with other types of heat exchangers such as Shell and Tubes Heat Exchangers.
QUALITATIVE GRAPH

In applications like the steam condenser, the user can do all the transformations, so have a superheated gas, which then condenses, and then have a subcooled liquid. A qualitative graph allows the user to identify the desuperheating, condensing, and subcooling parts.
FALLING FILM CHILLER

Falling Film Chillers are chillers, whose purpose is to generally cool water or glycol water. On top of the Pillow Plate Bank, there is a water distributor, and the water comes down from it by gravity, spreads out over all the plates then flows by gravity down the walls. So the heat exchange, in this case, is not done by convection, but it is a heat exchange by conduction. This method by conduction becomes very efficient when the film thickness is low. The Falling Film module contains equations to calculate the film thickness as a function of flow rate, size, and distribution. The program calculates the film thickness and, as a function of it, the heat transfer coefficient is calculated. In these cases, the plate distance is very large.
By clicking on Cost/Weight in this case there is no energy saving, as there is no heat recovery, but the calculation mask only provides the cost of the actual product according to the input provided.
LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS

In AIR HEATER applications, air needs a fan to move, so by verifying this heat exchanger and clicking on the Cost/Weight button, it is possible to have the so-called LCC Analysis, that is LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS of the product. In the LCC analysis, I can consider fan efficiency (the smaller the fan size, the lower the efficiency), material cost, commercial factor, energy cost, hours of daily operation and days of annual operation, Kg of carbon dioxide per kWh. The software once again will calculate the cost of the product, provide with the annual plant operating hours, make an indicative analysis of the cost, give the absorbed power of the fan and therefore its annual consumption, the energy annual cost, the life cycle cost and the equivalent Kg of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. While these calculations are indicative, at a glance they allow the user to compare thecost of one product with another, in a matter of seconds.
It is possible to further elaborate the economic calculation according to special needs and rules. For any request, we are available at sales@unilab.eu

Currently, our PILLOW SUITE, like all UNILAB Software, has a wide library of fluids.

All PILLOW SUITE software use the library REFPROP of NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). It comprises the thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of more than 300 liquids & gases, and 12 mixtures of liquids, including the newest refrigerants like R1234ze, R1234yf, R449A, a wide variety of Oils and many more.

Our calculation models are supported by almost 35 years of research & expertise.
Ready-made projects are available in each mode, to help the user perform the calculation. The equations of PILLOW SUITE are among the most modern from the point of view of literature publications. Through calculation factors, thesoftware gives the possibility to the user to align the theoretical result with his experimental data.

Discover our Pillow suite

Pillow Suite is Unilab’s software solution for Continuous (or Steady State) and Batch Applications using Pillow Plate Heat Exchangers. The continuous App contains PCOIL, our software for Pillow Plate Banks, divided by applications types in several calculation modalities. Batch applications include
BMC Tank, for the calculation of bulk milk cooler tanks using PPHEs, and
Unilab Pillow, for the design of PPHEs inside a circular or rectangular tank.

Explore BMC TANK

Explore UNILAB PILLOW

References

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