ProcessApex Heat Exchanger

Heat exchangers serve to transfer heat from one fluid to another. Over time this equipment can become fouled or process conditions may change resulting in a loss of energy efficiency for the heat exchanger. When this happens a valuable resource (heating or cooling energy) may be lost. In addition to the lost energy, which may have to be made up through a more expensive source, there can be additional energy demand (costs) required to cool the fluid that did not release its heat energy. Being aware of the critical parameters and quickly diagnosing the root cause of inefficient operation is an essential part of an energy asset performance program.

  Real-Time Results Tracking

ExperTune's ProcessApex helps you evaluate, monitor, and diagnose your heat exchange assets. The heat exchanger component can provide performance and diagnostic information for condensers, reboilers, vaporizors, coolers, and heaters. These can be co-current, counter current, double pipe, and multi-shell.

Real-Time Heat Transfer Analysis

Track the heat transfer over time, in real-time. You can know immediately when there is a change. Or watch the effect of fouling over time. You can now make decisions quickly and accurately. When should you plan the next cleaning, or boil-out? Use this real-time analysis to figure it out the right way.

Heat Balance

With an accurate, up-to-the-minute heat balance, you can know immediately when things go wrong. Wouldn't you like to know right away if there is a leak, a forgotten bypass, or a steam trap that is stuck open? Now you can.

ProcessApex monitors the heat balance around the heat exchanger using all the real-time information that you have available. When the heat balance doesn't close, you can tell that you have a problem.

  Powerful Reporting

ProcessApex is designed to provide "what-if" or potential opportunity values. For heat exchangers the following "potentials" assessments are:

• heat duty
• hot and cold side outlet temperature
• hot and cold side optimal flow

All heat exchanger metrics are also maintained in a historian for trending. This is very useful when evaluating exchanger fouling through the overall heat transfer coefficient.

ProcessApex Reports Identify Improvements

  Accurate, Useful Analysis

In addition to providing technical performance information there are reporting features designed to make it easy to compare assets locally or across the enterprise. One of these is the Benchmark display. This display shows an asset performance metric against those of the same type. This can be used to support or prioritize maintenance activities. Consider the case of determining which reboilers get cleaned during a shutdown. The reboilers with the highest hot side flow potential are the ones that will yield the greatest reduction in steam consumption if cleaned.

The ideas behind each of the ProcessApex components are:

1. Consistent calculations,
2. Easily accessed information
3. Create a historical record
4. Enable faster decisions
5. Identify opportunities for improvement
6. Value the opportunity when possible

Please contact us if you would like additional information, also if you have specific metrics you would be interested in for a particular component.