SPX: APV Heat Exchangers Designed to Lower Energy Costs in Oil and Gas Applications
More efficient process heat recovery reduces energy consumption and can bring significant cost savings. From its APV brand, SPX provides a wide range of plate heat exchanger technologies for oil and gas production in both onshore and offshore locations that can help increase heat process efficiency and contribute to lower costs. Lightweight and highly efficient heat transfer surfaces combine with robust and compact designs to deliver reliable performance and maximum heat efficiency in demanding process conditions across a wide range of oil and gas processes. Widely used in low to medium pressure heat transfer applications, APV heat transfer solutions play an important role in applications ranging from cooling and heating to condensing and evaporation of process fluids in, for example, crude oil stabilization, gas dehydration, gas sweetening, regasification and utility cooling.
APV heat transfer solutions for the Oil and Gas industries are based on a complete range of plate-type heat exchangers including gasketed, semi-welded and welded plate options. These range from high capacity, heavy duty units to small, compact designs which are available as standard solutions or as customized units based on ground-breaking designs and various materials.
Designed for reduced fouling, in particular in comparison with traditional shell and tube technology, APV heat exchangers have longer run times and require less service and maintenance. They provide easy inspection and maintenance access and can be cleaned using clean-in-place (CIP) or mechanical cleaning processes. The high thermal efficiency of APV heat exchangers enables a very compact design, resulting in a minimum footprint where space and weight are essential parameters. This means less extensive loadbearing foundations, faster installation at lower cost and lower overall CAPEX.
The range of APV gasketed plate heat exchangers offers exceptionally high thermal efficiency with the flexibility to reconfigure solutions to meet changing needs. They are widely used in crude stabilization, gas dehydration, gas sweetening, refrigeration duties (gaseous as well as liquid) and utility cooling. Plates are designed for efficient flow distribution and optimum turbulence to maximise heat transfer efficiency. Service downtime is minimised thanks to easy operation and maintenance features including easy-to-mount APV clip gaskets and plate alignment features such as “Corner Lock” and “Bubble Lock” which ensure a stable, well-aligned plate pack every time the unit is closed.
In higher temperature and higher pressure applications, the APV Hybrid series of welded plate heat exchangers stand out as an obvious choice for operation in areas such as wet crude heaters, lean-rich interchangers, sour gas coolers, amine re-boilers and acid condensers covering processes including crude stabilization, gas dehydration and gas sweetening. The high thermal efficiency of the APV Hybrid heat exchangers reduces external energy input demand, while its design flexibility enables very low-pressure drops to be achieved without compromising performance. Optimised plate corrugation patterns reduce the risk of fouling and increase heat recovery respectively, depending on the duty conditions and priorities. The APV Hybrid heat exchanger can be easily opened for inspection and cleaning by removing the housing covers. The unit is mechanically cleanable on the tube side and plate side is easily CIP cleaned making it a truly cleanable solution.
Also available is the APV ParaWeld series. These semi-welded plate heat exchangers are designed with welded channels to allow handling of aggressive fluids and are available with either conventional or special gaskets to match specific duty requirements. The units are highly suitable, functioning as main propane pre-heaters and propane evaporators. Using the special APV Paramine™ gasket solution with APV semi-welded heat exchangers provides a superior plate-and-gasket combination specifically designed to handle high concentrations of sour gas. These units are particular suitable for use in applications such as medium to high temperature lean/rich Amine interchanger duties and resolve conventional gasket lifetime issues.
SPX has vast experience in optimising the utilization of energy through efficient heat recovery and a wide range of heat transfer solutions and options are available to best match application requirements. The portfolio is globally supported by SPX expert design and application engineering, project management, service and maintenance to help customers optimise their processes. SPX heat transfer solutions are designed to operate safely and offer better economy by increasing performance, improving run times and lowering maintenance costs.
About SPX Flow Technology:
The SPX Flow Technology segment designs, manufactures and installs highly engineered solutions used to process, blend, meter and transport fluids, in addition to solutions for air and gas filtration and dehydration. The segment supports global food and beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, energy, and industrial markets.
About SPX
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, SPX Corporation (NYSE: SPW) is a global Fortune 500 multi-industry manufacturing leader with approximately $5 billion in annual revenue, operations in more than 35 countries and over 14,000 employees. The company’s highly-specialized, engineered products and technologies are concentrated in Flow Technology and energy infrastructure. Many of SPX’s innovative solutions are playing a role in helping to meet rising global demand for electricity and processed foods and beverages, particularly in emerging markets. The company’s products include food processing systems for the food and beverage industry, critical Flow components for oil and gas processing, power transformers for utility companies, and cooling systems for power plants. For more information, please visit www.spx.com.