Bulk Solids Indirect Cooling, Heating and Drying
Application
Oilseeds
- ✓ Pre-heating oilseeds for effective oil extraction.
Battery Material
- ✓ Effective and accurate temperature control.
Polymer
- ✓ Energy saving (up to 90%) drying process with reduced footprint.
- ✓ Pre-heating before extruding and injection process.
- ✓ Effective cooling of heat media before packing.
Sugar
- ✓ Efficient cooling to prevent caking and agglomeration with reduced footprint.
- ✓ Accurate temperature control, even if ambient temperatures fluctuate.
Fertilizer
- ✓ Efficient cooling prior to prevent caking during packaging/transport.
- ✓ Reduced footprint means cooling can be located closer to product load-out.
- ✓ Energy savings, dust control and opportunity to mitigate planned rate reductions.
Coffee & Cocoa
- ✓ Pre-heating coffee and cocoa beans.
Minerals
- ✓ Effective pre-heating before its process.
How it works
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Movie – Cooling Application
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Movie – Heating Application
Advantages
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Small footprint
Typical unit size is 2 M2 (two square meters).
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Energy savings
Up to 90% energy savings compared with direct-contact.
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Recover and reuse waste energy
Waste heat can either be reused to pre-heat solid media or captured and used elsewhere in the plant.
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Friendly to your product
Slow-moving uniform mass flow mitigates product attrition while maintaining even product temperature.
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Minimal maintenance costs
No moving parts; easy to access for cleaning.
Case studies
Case 1 – Sugar cooling system modernization
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Fluid bed cooler | Solex indirect cooler |
| Cooling capacity was not sufficient especially in summer | Achieved ideal temperature though in summer |
| ~2.5 kW / ton of sugar | ~ 0.6 kW / ton of sugar |
This plant found that integrating the Solex sugar cooling unit used significantly less energy than traditional technologies, with no air-handling equipment. The product was consistently discharged at stable temperatures for storage and transport, regardless of ambient conditions. The vertical orientation of the unit allowed it to take up far less space within the facility. With no moving parts, there was also a significant decrease in maintenance required.
Case 2 – Sugar cooling system modernization
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Fluid bed cooler | Solex indirect cooler |
| Cooling capacity had been upset and outgoing temperature was between 35-40ºC. | Achieved cooling 85 tph of sugar from 40-25ºC |
| Formation of sugar caking | Eliminated sugar caking |
| Minimized product abrasion, resulting in less sugar dust and a higher quality product. |
This customer reported the equipment was compact and easy to install, and the investment cost of the installation was lower than that of fluid bed and drum coolers. Also, with few moving parts and easy operation, maintenance costs were extremely low. And with less than 100 kW installed electrical power, operating costs were minimized. Given that the equipment did not use any air in contact with the sugar, there were significantly fewer emissions, and no sugar was sent to remelting.
Case 3 – Foundry sand temperature control
| Challenges | Solution by Solex |
|---|---|
| To maintain each sand grain to within 2ºF of 75ºF. | Add a closed-loop heating/cooling water temperature control module or TCM. ・ TCM reheats water in the closed loop. ・TCM cools the water when the sand is above 75ºF. |
| The sand temperature entering the process could be as low as 60ºF or as high as 120ºF. | |
| To fit the equipment into a space of less than 11 feet tall by three feet square while achieving a production rate of 8,000 pounds per hour. |
A foundry sand customer in the U.S. was experiencing temperature variations in its sand when attempting to increase production. Solex was able to meet the required 2ºF variation in a compact design with minimal energy requirements, resulting in fewer casting rejects and less waste of expensive raw materials. To further guarantee the system’s performance, Solex also provided a closed-loop water module that allowed the client to maintain temperature control during summer and winter months.
Case 4 – Energy recovery to heat solid
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Significant amount of steam was used for rapeseed processing to produce oil. Approx. 95ºC of steam was wasted. | Captured steam and converted into condensate. Hot water was then used to preheat the rapeseed. |
| Was able to mitigate odour that was previously leaving the stack of the pre-heater. |
Specifications
| Heating | Cooling | Drying | High Temp Cooling | Electric Heater | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | ~400ºC | 450ºC to 4ºC | ~400ºC | 2,000ºC to 5ºC | ~1,000ºC |
| Capacity | 100 kg/h ~ 300 ton/h | 100 kg/h ~ 100 ton/h |
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