DIRECT CONTACT STACK ECONOMIZER
The biggest heat loss in a steam boiler is what goes up the stack.
Recovering this heat loss is what Thermal Engineering’s Supermizer Direct Contact Stack Economizer does. When large volumes of hot boiler exhaust gases are discharged to the atmosphere, substantial quantities of valuable heat are needlessly lost. This heat can be easily re-captured and added to the incoming fresh water make-up as pre-heating. The hot exhaust boiler gases are directed by way of a damper on the boiler stack and enters into the lower heat transfer chamber and starts moving upward through the “packed mass” heat exchanger. When plant make-up water is needed, automatic controls start the regulated flow of water into the Supermizer. The incoming water enters the flow distributor where it is evenly spread out over the Packed Mass heat exchanger. It now starts to flow downward through the torturous path of the Packed Mass heat exchanger. The large surface area of the packing causes the water to spread out into a very thin film. The hot gases traveling upward through the packing readily releases its heat to the water film, rapidly raising the water temperature. Just as quickly, the hot gases cool. The efficiency of the heat transfer is dramatic – at full power and maximum water flow rates, the hot exhaust gases are normally cooled to within 10 to 20 degrees of the incoming water temperature before discharge to the exhaust stack. In a well tuned boiler, this can amount to about a 20% energy recovery of the on-line boiler load.
