PTFE lined heat exchanger can be used in a large variety of applications. And the physical characteristic allows the PTFE lined heat exchanger to be used in harsh conditions, such as acid or base tanks at an elevated temperature tank. 

Back in 2011, a company reached out to us with a problem that required a heat exchanger, their company specialized in the recycling of acid solvent, a by-product of a semi-conductor manufacturer. The acid solvent would be gathered into a specialized 10 metric ton tank that is non-reactive to the acidity of the liquid, however, the tank is filled at a rapid speed, and the high temperature makes transporting the acid liquid even more dangerous to handle.

In order for the company to move the dangerous substance before the tank is full, they needed to cool the tank down to at least 50°C (the acid solvent was initially 141°C) within 4hours. A heat exchanger was needed to solve this situation, not only we had to designed a heat exchanger that could withstand the high acid solvent, and design it in a way that it could be fitted into the 10T tank that has a narrow opening, but also the heat exchanger had to be efficient enough to cool the solvent to the required temperature for transportation within the short amount of time.

We designed a skeletal structure machined from PTFE with hole cut-outs that would act as a mounting station for the PTFE tube. We then CUSTOM manufactured a PTFE Convoluted tube that had a wall-thickness of only 0.3mm and the diameter of the tube allowed it to be snuggly fitted onto the cut-outs of the mounting station. 

The “Thin-walled convoluted PTFE tubing” design was chosen to increase the effective heat exchange surface area and the 0.3mm thin wall allowed the cooling process to occur at a much faster pace. These two designs both drastically increased the efficiency of the heat exchanger. All that’s left to do is to pump coolant into the heat exchanger system.

In the end, we were able to deliver a customized heat exchanger that not only fitted within the narrow neck of the 10T acid tank, but also offered enough surface area and efficiency to meet the customers requirement.