The level of SO₂ emissions in Sulphuric Acid plants is directly related to the temperature management for the conversion of SO₂ to SO₃, which is done via gas-gas heat exchangers. The number of gas-gas heat exchangers in the conversion sections forces plant designers to look for more compact and efficient units, as these units are cost-intensive. HUGO PETERSEN GmbH, as an innovative company in this field, has developed the next generation of shell-and-tube heat exchangers, taking into account both the ecological and economic aspects.

The real challenge in the design of the radial flow heat exchanger was its limited exchange area to construction volume. The goal was to improve this ratio. This challenge was successfully met in our new design, the multi-bundle radial flow heat exchanger, which represents an optimal combination of the positive features of the various existing designs. In contrast to the previous radial heat exchanger design with a single tube bundle, the new design consists of a multi-tube bundle, resulting in a compact design with optimised pressure drop, far superior to the existing designs. The first units have proven their excellent performance in several sulphuric acid plants.

The new design ensures that the gas distribution is almost ideal and the effect of the MBRF concept supports the redistribution and homogenisation of the temperature profile after each bundle. CFD studies demonstrate the superior performance of the design, a fact which has convinced customers to replace their HEXs with this new MBRF technology.