Ceramic Regenerative Heat Exchanger

A regenerative heat exchanger or more commonly a regenerator is a type of heat exchanger where heat from the hot fluid is intermittently stored in a thermal storage medium before it is transferred to the cold fluid.

Ceramic regenerative heat exchanger.

A recuperator is a special purpose counter flow energy recovery heat exchanger positioned within the supply and exhaust air streams of an air handling system or in the exhaust gases of an industrial process in order to recover the waste heat generally they are used to extract heat from the exhaust and use it to preheat air entering the combustion system. A 2 tank rto is made up of two. Recuperative systems typically employ shell and tube type heat exchangers. To accomplish this the hot fluid is brought into contact with the heat storage medium then the fluid is displaced with the cold fluid which absorbs the heat.

The basic unit of the regenerative heat exchanger integrated in the state of the art self regenerative burner is a cylindrical cartridge filled with a pile of ceramic honeycomb structures. These regenerative heat exchangers can achieve considerably higher thermal efficiencies than a shell and tube or plate style. Efficiencies can be as high as 97 which can cut natural gas usage by 90. Whereas in recuperators where heat is transferred directly and immediately through a partition wall of some kind from a hot to a cold fluid both of which flow simultaneously through the exchanger the operation of the regenerative heat exchanger involves the temporary storage of the heat transferred in a packing which possesses the necessary thermal capacity.

This heat exchanger is comprised of ceramic material which can come in the form of saddles or honeycomb blocks.