Why plate heat exchanger is commonly used in craft beer industry



At present, the most commonly used wort cooling equipment in breweries is plate heat exchanger, which is a closed cooling equipment made of stainless steel. It consists of many thin plates with grooves on both sides. When wort is cooled, hot wort and coolant flow backward along the grooves on both sides of the groove plate by pumping in a turbulent form to exchange heat. The cooling plate units can be used in parallel, series or combination. Grainbrew also use such kind of heat exchanger.
The characteristics of plate heat exchangers are described below.
craft beer brewery equipment, Grainbrew, heat exchanger
(1) High heat transfer efficiency

Heat transfer efficiency is high because the plate structure of plate heat exchanger can form turbulence and provide high heat transfer efficiency. Its heat transfer coefficient can reach l500-5000W/(m2.K), while that of tube heat exchanger is only 350-2300W/(m2.K).
 craft beer brewery equipment, Grainbrew, heat exchanger
(2) Compact structure so that to save more space

Occupying a small area under the same heat load, plate heat exchangers need only about 1/3 of the heat transfer area of tubular heat exchangers.
 craft beer brewery equipment, Grainbrew, heat exchanger
(3) Flexibility  

It is very difficult to enlarge the heat transfer area of traditional tubular heat exchangers when the capacity of heat exchangers needs to be increased. However, the plate heat exchanger can increase or decrease the plate according to the size of production, and adjust the heat exchange area.It is very convenient.
 craft beer brewery equipment, Grainbrew, heat exchanger
(4) Reliably Sealing

The sealing gasket is put into the groove of the sealing gasket with good sealing property. It is fixed by the pressing gap, which has the ability of resisting high pressure and does not need adhesive. It’s convenient and sanitary.
 craft beer brewery equipment, Grainbrew, heat exchanger
(5) Safety

The special plate gasket structure with good safety can prevent the mixing of hot and cold media. The two fluids on the inlet and outlet end face are separated by two-way gaskets, which improves the safety of heat exchange.
 craft beer brewery equipment, Grainbrew, heat exchanger
Edit By Jane
Shandong Grain Machinery Co., Ltd.
Shandong Tiantai Beer Equipment Co., Ltd.
E: [email protected]