Knowledge base
An engine or a power plant rejects its heat through cooling circuits, and very often a plate heat exchanger sits between the engine's own circuit and the rest of the plant. It keeps the engine circuit closed and clean, lets the plant use whatever cooling is available - air, water, a cooling tower - and can put the engine's heat to use. This guide explains what the exchanger does there and the arrangements that are common.
Separating The Engine Circuit
The engine wants a closed, treated liquid circuit with a known mixture and a known pressure. The plant side may carry something much less friendly: untreated or hard water, river or sea water, a long pipe run with a mix of materials. The plate exchanger lets heat cross while the two liquids stay apart, so the engine never sees the plant water. If something goes wrong on the plant side, the engine circuit is not contaminated.
Matching The Plant's Cooling
Once the engine circuit is closed, the heat can be given up in whatever way suits the site. It can go to a glycol circuit that an air-cooled radiator or dry cooler releases to the air, to cooling tower water, or to a water source. The exchanger is the joint that lets one engine design work with many kinds of cooling and lets the plant change its cooling later without touching the engine.
Putting The Heat To Use
The heat that an engine must reject is also heat that can be used. Plate exchangers take heat from the jacket circuit, and in some plants from the charge air circuit, and pass it to a heating system, domestic hot water or a process. Where the heat is wanted, the exchanger turns a cost into a benefit, and where it is not, a second path through a radiator rejects it.
Keeping The Plant Running
Because the exchanger is in the main heat path, plants plan for it: a spare or a second unit in parallel so one can be cleaned or serviced, strainers and filters to protect the narrow channels, and valves and bypasses that let the engine run during maintenance. The choice of type and material follows the fluids and the site. TECS Engineering designs and delivers plate heat exchanger solutions for engine, power plant and industrial cooling circuits; send the engine data and the plant conditions and the engineering team will answer.
In Short
- Keeps the engine circuit closed and clean, apart from the plant water
- Lets one engine work with air, water or tower cooling
- Heat from the engine circuits can be put to use in heating or process
- A second path through a radiator rejects heat that is not wanted
- Spare or parallel unit and strainers keep the plant running
- Type and material follow the fluids and the site
What To Send With An Enquiry
- Engine data sheet with the heat to be rejected in each circuit
- The plant side: air, water, tower or source, and its quality
- Temperatures and flows on both sides
- Allowed pressure drop on each side
- Whether the heat is to be used, and for what
- Redundancy wanted and the space available
Questions We Are Often Asked
Why put a plate heat exchanger between the engine and the plant?
To keep the engine circuit closed and clean, and to let the plant use any cooling it has without exposing the engine to that water.
Can the heat from an engine be used?
Yes. Plate exchangers pass it to heating, hot water or process circuits; a radiator can reject whatever is not wanted.
Why are two exchangers sometimes fitted in parallel?
So one can be cleaned or serviced while the other keeps the engine cooled.
What protects the narrow channels from blockage?
Strainers or filters upstream and well treated water on both sides.
Does the plant side have to be water?
No. The plant side can be a glycol circuit to an air-cooled radiator or dry cooler, a cooling tower circuit or a water source.
Contact Us
Send us the heat duty, the fluid temperatures and flow rates, the ambient conditions and the installation limits. We answer with a design proposal - or write to us on WhatsApp.
