Alfa Laval’s finned tube air heat exchanger is a long-lasting cooler with high performance. Finned tube air heat exchanger are suitable for practically any oil and gas, data center, hydrogen, RNG or CCUS application. We also supply standardized and engineered to order solutions. Because of their adjustable designs, we can customize our heat exchangers to your specific working conditions, ensuring dependable operation, low operating costs, and high performance.
A heat exchanger with many outwardly finned tubes that are cooled by air transports hot media (such as lubricating oil or water) over it. Heat is delivered from the heated media to the air by pushing air through the tubes with one or more fans. The fins on the tubes increase the surface area in contact with the air, which improves heat transfer.
Forced draft design
In air-cooled finned tube heat exchangers with a forced draft configuration the air passes the fan before it passes the finned tubes and the air is pushed through the tube bundles. The advantages with this include:
- The fan and belt is not exposed to the hot exhaust air, which increases component lifetimes.
- No temperature limit on the existing air.
- When the tube sections are horizontal, the fan is placed under the tubes, making access during service easier and costs for structure lower.
- Energy consumption is often lower as compared to induced draft units.
Alfa Laval offers a great variety of air-cooled finned tube heat exchanger designs in terms of:
- Number of fans
- Orientation of the fans (horizontal or vertical)
- Orientation of the tube sections (horizontal, vertical or sloped)
- Induced or forced draft
- Configurable plot sizes
Induced draft design
The fan in an induced draft air-cooled finned tube heat exchanger is placed after the tube sections, causing air to flow through the bundles of tubes. The benefits of this layout include:
- A more even distribution of the air flow through the tube bundles.
- The risk of recirculating hot exhaust air is much lower thanks to a higher exit air velocity than in a forced-draft heat exchanger.
There is a sweet spot for each forced/induced draft, fan orientation, and tube section orientation combination. Contact a local sales representative to determine which Alfa Laval product is ideal for your needs.
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Looking to cut cooling costs and enhance reliability?
Contact us today to discover Alfa Laval’s innovative air-cooled finned tube air heat exchanger.
