2026-10-31
A chemical synthesis plant in Antwerp uses a 650 m³/h open-loop evaporative cooling tower system to cool reactor jackets and titanium plate heat exchangers (PHE).
The cooling water extracts ambient dust, lime scale particles, and airborne organic debris from the industrial park atmosphere. Suspended solids ($TSS \approx 45\text{--}90\text{ mg/L}$) settled inside the narrow 2.5 mm channels of the titanium plate heat exchangers.
Thermal transfer efficiency routinely decayed by 25% every 3 to 4 weeks. The plant was forced to isolate heat exchangers monthly for chemical acid baths and manual plate dismantling, incurring high labor costs and risking gasket leaks.
LEFILTER engineered a skid-mounted LF-FC-4-1000 Multi-Chamber Automatic Backwash Filter fabricated from 316L stainless steel:
Isolated Chamber Backwash Engine: The vessel houses four independent 150 $\mu\text{m}$ wedge wire filter elements. During filtration, all four chambers operate in parallel.
Non-Stop Differential Pressure Trigger: When the inlet/outlet pressure differential ($\Delta P$) reaches 0.08 MPa, an internal distributor seals off one chamber at a time. System pressure forces clean water backward through the isolated chamber, purging debris out the flush valve in a 20-second burst while the remaining three chambers handle 100% of the cooling load.
Compact Skid Design: The vertical orientation fit into a tight 1.8 m × 1.4 m footprint inside the existing pump room.
Thermal Performance Maintained: Heat exchanger thermal transfer efficiency remained steady for over 12 consecutive months without requiring manual dismantling or chemical washing.
Low Water Consumption: Single-cycle backwash volume consumed less than 180 liters per purge event, keeping wastewater discharge below 0.08% of total circulation.
Maintenance Savings: Reduced annual heat exchanger maintenance expenses by €32,000 in labor and replacement gasket kits.
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