Piloting the way to improved technology
The larger the pilot plant, the lower the scale-up risk"
To reduce technical risks for our customers and for ourselves, Koch-Glitsch and Koch Heat Transfer have constructed commercial scale demonstration units in Wichita, KS, USA.
The units are industrial scale but are instrumented like laboratory units.
These pilot plant expansions included:
Large diameter tower
- Operation from deep vacuum to 200 psia
- 23 MM BTU/hr (6.7 MW) steam boiler and cooling tower
- Sight ports for visually observing flow phenomena
- Ability to quantify entrainment and weeping and assess its influence on equipment performance
- The influence of physical properties will be quantified by using several chemical systems
- Ability to quantify the influence of extreme phase ratios
The tower is being used to demonstrate the performance of a wide range of equipment:
- One-pass and 2-pass trays
- High capacity tray devices
- Random packing
- Structured packing
- Grid
- Liquid and vapor distribution devices
- Mist elimination devices
Large diameter shell-and-tube exchangers
- 23 MM BTU/hr (6.7 MW) heating and cooling duty (steam and cooling water)
- The influence of physical properties will be quantified by using several chemical systems
- Laminar and turbulent flow
- Ability to study single-phase systems and systems where phase changes are taking place
- Vertical and horizontal exchangers
This heat exchanger facility is being used to demonstrate the performance of a wide range of equipment:
- Conventional tubes and segmental baffles
- Twisted tubes
- Tubes with heat transfer augmentation devices on the inside and/or outside
- Helical baffles