Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger

The compact brazed plate heat exchanger (BPHE) is constructed as a plate package of corrugated channel plates with a filler material between each plate. During the vacuum-brazing process the filler material forms a brazed joint at every contact point between the plates, creating complex channels. They are maintenance free, provide a long service lifetime and can withstand high temperatures and extremely high design pressures.

Compact

Footprint can be a small as one tenth of shell and tube heat exchanger or half of the gasketed heat exchanger.

Cost Effective

With maintenance-free design, there can be significant savings on spare parts.

Efficient

Up to 90% of heat recovery can be attained which has significantly higher thermal performance compared to other heat exchangers.

BPHE Structure

Working Principle

BPHE consists of corrugated stainless steel plates vacuum brazed together using copper as the brazing material. Brazing the stainless steel plates together eliminates the need for sealing gaskets and thick frame plates. Stainless steel plates forms the channels and the working fluids flow through the channels where heat is transferred from hot to cold side. Since the hydraulic diameter is small and all surfaces of the brazed plate heat exchanger actively contribute to heat transfer, the BPHE is very compact in size, and it has a low weight and a low hold-up volume.

BPHEs are suitable for high viscosity fluids, which tend to flow in the laminar regime in most heat exchangers because of their swirl-producing characteristics; helical vortices are often generated at rather low Reynolds numbers in cross-corrugated flow passages. This mitigates fouling as well in many cases. Only the plate edges are exposed to the atmosphere. Thus, the heat loss is negligible and no insulation is generally required.