The sulphuric acid plant and district heating
Kemira case story - Plate heat exchanger
In the early 1980s, the heat generated in the absorption and
drying circuits at the Kemira sulphuric acid plant in Helsingborg, Sweden was lost into the sea next to the plant.
Now, following a total reconstruction of the cooling system to
include plate heat exchangers in a closed loop cooling circuit,
the temperature of the cooling water has been raised to a
level at which it can be used for district heating.
Installation
In early 1980s, Kemira changed its acid cooling system from
direct cooling to heat recovery. In the direct cooling system,
the heat from the absorption and drying towers was emitted
to the sea. With the heat recovery system, the heat is instead
transferred to a closed loop cooling water circuit containing
demineralized water. This water is heated and the hot water is
used to heat district heating water for the city of Helsingborg.
In this heat recovery system the acid from the absorption
towers was cooled in four anodically protected shell-and-tube
heat exchangers connected in parallel pairs. The acid from
the drying tower was cooled in an anodically protected shelland-tube heat exchanger.
By 1999, the lifetime of the anodically protected shell-and-tube
heat exchangers had come to an end and they needed to be
replaced. At the same time, Kemira decided to totally rework
their acid cooling system. Instead of using three acid tanks
(one for each absorption tower and one for the drying system),
they installed one acid tank, supplying both the drying system
and the two absorption towers with circulating acid.
Three Alfa Laval acid coolers used to recover 25 MW of heat from
the acid cooling system.
All the old coolers were replaced with three semiwelded Alfa
Laval plate heat exchangers in D205 with FPMS gaskets,
connected in parallel. The D205 plate material and the FPMS
gaskets were selected due to the high acid temperature of
105C.
Energy Saving
In the Kemira sulphur burning acid plant, with a capacity of
1000 tons per day, around 530 MWh is recovered from the
drying and absorption towers per day. This heat is delivered
to the district heating network of the city of Helsingborg.
Kemira delivers a total of 240 GWh per year to the network.
This is equivalent to around 22,000m3 of oil, corresponding to
approxiately 25% of the citys requirements. Of this total, 80
GWh is supplied as steam and the remainder is heat recovered from the drying and absorption towers. This means that
during the winter months heat is provided to about 10% of
the citys inhabitants but in summer time Kemira supplies all
heat needed for domestic water.
The total cost for the heat recovery system introduced in the
early 1980s was 45 MSEK (including a 3.5 km long pipe to
the district heating center). The payback time for the system
was less than a year, since at the time Kemira supplied heat
to the city worth 80 MSEK annually (due to higher acid
95C by injecting waste steam from the sulphuric acid plant.
Two of Alfa Lavals medium-size plate heat exchangers are
used as trim coolers in the demineralized water loop whenever needed to meet seasonal variations in demand for heating.
The trim coolers are by-passed when they are not needed.
Heat Recovery
About 65 MW of heat is generated in sulphur burning acid
plants with a daily capacity of 1 000 tons. Around two thirds
of the heat originates from the sulphur burner and the
converter. Most acid producers know how to recover this
heat for production of high-pressure steam. However, the
remaining one third of generated heat is usually emitted into
the sea or the air in direct cooling systems.
The plate heat exchanger makes it possible to economically
recover the heat from the circulating acid in the drying and
absorption towers. By installing a closed loop of cooling
water, the heat can be used for other purposes such as district heating, boiler feed water preheating, process heating in
adjacent plants, space heating of factories and offices and
production of fresh water by desalination.
The Alfa Laval semi-welded PHE, with cassettes of D205 and FPMS
gaskets for longest lifetime and highest leakage security.
capacity). The switch to a common acid tank for all three
towers and new acid coolers in 1999 cost 10.5 MSEK.
Calculated in todays oil prices, the value of the heat supplied
to the city is approximately 22 MSEK annually. As a result, the
payback time was again less than one year.
For the city of Helsingborg, this arrangement means less
dependence on oil and thus reduced emissions of sulphur
dioxide into the air. Furthermore, the project eliminated the
need for a new 45 MW co-generation unit, which would have
cost the city 150 MSEK in the 1980s.
For Kemira, the delivery of heat has become an important
complementary product to sulphuric acid and other chemicals. It has also nearly eliminated the need for cooling water.
Technical Data
The demineralized water circuit heats the district heating
water from 50 to 80C in two of Alfa Lavals large plate heat
exchangers having a temperature approach of only 4C. The
temperature in the district heating circuit can be raised to 90-
PP 62350 E3 / 0203
How to contact Alfa Laval
Contact details for all countries
are continually updated on our website.
Please visit www.alfalaval.com to
access the information direct.
The Alfa Laval plate heat exchanger is particularly
suited for heat recovery owing to its:
High turbulence and resulting high heat transfer
coefficient, which gives a small heat transfer area
Full counter-current flow, providing the capacity to
handle crossing temperature programs
Ability to handle close temperature approaches.
Temperature approaches as low as 2C can easily be
achieved. This provides compact solutions even for
extreme heat recovery duties
High degree of heat recovery. Generally 80-90% of
available waste heat can be recovered. This is in contrast
to shell and tube heat exchangers, which seldom provide
efficient heat recovery above 50-60%.
Lower investment and installation cost due to smaller
heat transfer surface and thin plate materials, resulting in
more compact solutions. Pay-off time for a complete heat
recovery installation is generally less than one year
Advantageous flow ratio characteristics. In heat recovery
both fluids are frequently liquids of approximately equal
flowrate
Flexibility allowing extension or regrouping of the heat
exchanger plate package to meet altered specifications
If heating of one fluid and cooling of another is required
in the process, energy benefits are doubled by minimizing
both heating and cooling needs.
Heat recovery of otherwise wasted heat can be carried out
with minor changes to the existing system.
Alfa Laval reserves the right to change specifications without prior notification.
