Design Considerations for High Temperature, Ceramic Heat Exchangers Available to Purchase

The recent developments in the energy industry have kindled renewed interest in producing energy (alternative fuels and electricity) more efficiently. This has motivated the development of higher temperature cycles and their associated equipment. In this paper we will discuss several design configurations coupled with the inherent properties of preferred ceramic materials to assess the viability and design reliability of ceramic heat exchangers for next generation high temperature heat exchangers. These analyses have been extended to conceptually compare the traditional shell and tube heat exchanger with shell and plate heat exchangers. These analyses include hydrodynamic, heat transfer, mechanical stress and reliability models. It was found that ceramic micro-channel heat exchanger designs proved to have the greatest reliability due to their inherent mechanical properties, minimal thermo-mechanical stresses while improving the performance efficiency in a compact footprint.