Ethanol Production Heat Exchangers

Plate Heat Exchangers are ideally suited to multiple applications in ethanol production facilities. Many steps in the ethanol process—including mash cooling, fermenter cooling, and yeast propagator cooling – require heat exchangers. The efficiency, reliability, compact size, light weight and excellent thermal performance of Plate heat exchangers make them a strong choice at many process stages. Especially useful is the ease of increasing PHE’s heat transfer capacity if the plant grows.

In addition to the process steps named above, Plate Heat Exchangers can also exchange heat in fluids to reduce energy costs. This applies to mash-mash interchangers, beer-mash interchangers, and beer-stillage interchangers. In ethanol distillation areas, coolers or other interchangers may be needed for process water or the ethanol itself.

All such one-phase, liquid-to-liquid exchange processes can be carried out with Plate Heat Exchangers. For processes that involve viscous fluids or those with high fiber content, Free-Flow Heat Exchangers with no metal-to-metal contact can be specified to promote free flow of the medium. PHEs with regular plate configurations are appropriate for applications with water, ethanol or fusel oil.