en.Wedoany.com Reported - Finland's Vahterus has provided Plate-and-Shell Heat Exchangers (PSHE) for the polyol reactor cooling project of Germany's BASF. This heat exchange solution has been applied in BASF's polyol production facilities across Asia, Europe, and North America.
Polyols are key intermediates in polyurethane production. The catalytic polymerization process in their production is highly exothermic, requiring continuous removal of reaction heat to ensure stable operation. This operating condition presents two major technical challenges: first, the medium has high viscosity, making traditional gasketed heat exchangers unsuitable; second, the batch production process causes severe daily temperature fluctuations, leading to thermal fatigue issues in traditional block-type heat exchangers. These challenges represent long-standing common technical bottlenecks in the selection of heat exchange equipment for global polyol production plants.
To address these operating requirements, BASF's global engineering department in Ludwigshafen, Germany, collaborated with Vahterus. It was verified that Vahterus's plate-and-shell heat exchangers are suitable for this application. Their core technical features include: a fully welded structure with no gasket seals, compatible with high-viscosity polyol media; and circular geometric plate design, providing resistance to thermal cycling and temperature shocks, suitable for large temperature fluctuations.
In large-scale operation within BASF's polyol reactor cooling scenarios, these heat exchangers have demonstrated multiple advantages: resistance to temperature shocks and thermal cycling, reducing leakage risk; direct accessibility of plate bundle welds for easy quality inspection; openable shell allowing plate bundle removal for maintenance; effective material drainage minimizing residue; high heat exchange efficiency and compact design, enabling a single unit to remove 7MW of reaction heat; and superior overall economic performance compared to similar compact plate heat exchangers.
In 2007, Vahterus plate-and-shell heat exchangers were applied in BASF's polyol expansion project in Geismar, USA. This project increased annual polyol production capacity from 250,000 tons to 350,000 tons by constructing two new reactors and expanding two existing reactors. Vahterus's PSHE heat exchangers were simultaneously integrated into the cooling systems of both the new and existing reactors.
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