Heat Exchanger
Application areas for heat exchanger tubes:
When selecting a material grade for a heat exchanger operating under certain conditions, a number of considerations have to be made. The grade needs to have sufficient corrosion resistance combined with suitable mechanical and physical properties.
| 1 | Seawater coolers | Selecting the right tube material for heat exchangers operating in seawater used as a cooling medium is critical. Seawater contains large amounts of sodium chlorides and solid particles such as sand silt and organic solids. In such a severe environment, you need to select a grade with high resistance against both localized corrosion and erosion corrosion. |
| 2 | Oil refining | Refinery process streams involve many corrosive elements, which can shorten the life span of low alloyed steels. Today, refining consists of many complex stages. To recover heat in the different processes, heat exchangers are deployed in plants where they typically operate under severe corrosion conditions. Most leakage in heat exchangers is attributed to corrosion on the tubing. Stainless steel and, in particular, duplex grades, including S31803, S32205, S32750, and S32760, can overcome such problems. |
| 3 | Petrochemicals | Corrosion in petrochemical plants can lead to contamination of manufactured products. The quality, high corrosion resistant stainless steels include a wide range of grades, from high-alloyed austenitic grades to hyper-duplex. |
| 4 | Chemicals | Special grades are used in heat exchangers in many demanding chemical processes, including the production of inorganic acids and caustics. Seamless tubes offer the required high reliability in these often critical applications. |
| 5 | Salt evaporation | Salt production process involves severe environments for tubular products, where high levels of chlorides are present. It is important to choose materials with high resistance to localized corrosion. |
| 6 | Power generation | Heat exchanger tubes can be found in condensers, feedwater heaters and wastewater handling equipment. Our steel grades fulfil the high quality standards for use in both conventional fossil fuelled power plants as well as nuclear power stations. |
| 7 | Gas processing | Reliable operation is essential in gas processing equipment. For offshore equipment, duplex stainless steels have been shown to provide weight saving benefits due to the wall thickness reductions possible from these high strength materials. |
| 8 | Flue gas cleaning / desulphurisation | Environmental demands call for effective gas cleaning equipment. For heat exchangers handling sour gas under condensing conditions, high alloyed austenitic grades. The higher alloyed duplex stainless steels can be suitable. |
| 9 | Hydrometallurgy | Slurry processing under high pressures and temperatures may give rise to severely corrosive conditions. Duplex stainless steels with their combination of corrosion resistance, high strength and erosion resistance, are particularly suited to this type of service. |