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Heat Recovery
A schematic of the moving bed heat exchangers, along with the chiller, dry cooler and heat pump. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science.
Meal cooler. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science.
A schematic of the moving bed heat exchangers, along with the chiller, dry cooler and heat pump. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science. process, it still needed to pre-heat the product before using the RF technology – and then cool the product after the RF stage to ambient temperature for safe handling and storage. Also essential was the ability to recover energy from the hot product at the cooling stage, and then“ upcycle” it for use back at the pre-heating stage. Agrifirm connected with Solex Thermal Science, a world market leader in solids, liquids and gas heat exchange. The company has extensive experience with heating and cooling solid granular products in moving bed heat exchangers( MBHEs), as well as maximizing energy recovery in industrial operations.
Meal pre-heater showing the stainless-steel pillow plates. Courtesy of Solex Thermal Science.
What is an MBHE? A moving bed heat exchanger( MBHE) allows for the exchange of thermal energy between solids( e. g., granules) and liquids through thermal conduction. It is characterized by a rectangular casing that is equipped with vertically positioned stainless steel pillow plates. The solids move continuously as a bed of product, driven by gravity between the plates. Inside the plates, a liquid heat transfer media flows countercurrent from the bottom of the unit to the top, ensuring optimized heat transfer. Given the product flow is driven by gravity and countercurrent to the liquid heat transfer media, the power consumption of an MBHE is low. It only
44 Heat Exchanger World June 2025 www. heat-exchanger-world. com