Wide-Channel / Powder-Type Plate Heat Exchanger

• 01Energy savings up to 90% — recovered heat can be pre-heated combustion air or boiler feed water.
• 02Near-zero fugitive emissions — fully sealed vertical shell, no dust cloud during cooling.
• 03No product loss, no degradation — gentle gravity flow keeps particle size distribution intact.
• 04Small footprint, high scalability — add modules on top of each other to lift duty by 2x or 3x.
• 05Easy maintenance, low OPEX — quick-opening doors, pull-out plate packs, single-plate replacement.

Every pillow plate is formed by laser welding two stainless-steel sheets (304, 316L or duplex on request) and hydro-forming them so that the internal flow path becomes a 3D pattern of welded spots. This creates the turbulence that drives a high heat-transfer coefficient without forcing us to narrow the gap between plates.

Flue gas or air passes sinusoidally along the outside of the plates. Pressure drop stays below 600 Pa at design flow, a fraction of what a finned-tube economiser would demand. Each plate withstands 60 bar working pressure, with burst pressure exceeding 200 bar — a safety margin that matters in lithium-ion precursor drying and hydrocarbon cracking service.

Heat ExchangeHigh transfer coefficient on both powder and gas side.

Wide Channels18-80 mm gap, dust-resistant, anti-bridging for sticky powders.

Low Pressure DropSinusoidal gas path cuts draft-fan power by 20-40%.

High Plate Strength60 bar working, burst pressure up to 200 bar per plate.

Detachable & CleanHinged cleaning doors, single-plate removal without cranes.

Why true counter-flow matters

Hot powder enters at the top at temperatures up to 500 °C. Cooling water enters at the bottom at roughly 28 °C (typical Australian makeup water). The two media move in opposite directions, so the temperature difference stays almost constant along the full height of the exchanger.

The result: outlet powder temperature can be driven within 10-15 °C of the inlet cooling water, a performance level that fluidised bed coolers simply cannot match. This is the core reason the wide-channel plate heat exchanger keeps improving your overall energy balance year after year.

Lithium & Battery Materials

Cooling lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide and cathode precursors after calcination in WA and QLD refineries.

Cement & Lime

Clinker cooling replacement of grate coolers, heat recovery to pre-heat secondary combustion air.

Chemical & Polymer

PVC, polyethylene, urea and ammonium nitrate granule cooling without caking or spec drift.

Pharmaceutical & Food

Sugar crystal, skim milk powder and API intermediate cooling with hygienic 316L plates.

Hazardous Waste Centres

Bottom ash and fly ash cooling downstream of rotary kiln incinerators and RTO systems.

Mining & Minerals

Iron ore pellet, alumina and silica sand cooling at integrated processing hubs.

Designing industrial heat recovery and thermal oxidation systems for more than two decades.

Plate heat exchangers and RTO systems delivered across APAC, Europe and the Americas.

Pressure equipment engineered against Australian Standard AS 1210 and third-party witnessed by TÜV or Lloyd’s.

Commissioning engineers available AEST business hours, spare plates warehoused for 72-hour dispatch.

Automated robotic laser welding cells give each pillow plate identical spot geometry and leak-free seams.

From process simulation and HTRI rating to skid fabrication, shipping and site training — one single contract.

Typical design covers 0.1 mm to 15 mm granules. For very fine powders (<50 µm) we recommend widening channels to 40-60 mm and adding a vibration-assisted feeder. For coarse material up to 25 mm we deploy an 80 mm gap with reinforced pillow plates.

A 500 kW unit fits within a 2.2 m x 1.6 m floor plate and stands roughly 4.5 m tall including the top feed bin. Because the system is vertical and gravity-fed, it usually slots directly under an existing calciner, dryer or kiln discharge with minimal structural steel work.

Yes. Wide channels (40 mm and above) plus optional inlet air-purge lances prevent bridging. For hygroscopic products such as urea or calcium chloride we ship the exchanger with a nitrogen-blanketed feed bin so moisture cannot ingress during start-up or shutdown.

Standard skid-mounted units ship within 12-14 weeks ex-works, plus 4-5 weeks sea freight to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide. For urgent replacement of an existing clinker cooler we can expedite to 9 weeks using air-freighted pillow plate bundles.

Design life is 15 years for abrasive minerals and 20+ years for clean chemical or pharmaceutical powders. Plate thickness is typically 2.0 mm with a corrosion allowance specific to your medium. A single plate can be pulled and replaced in under 4 hours — no crane, no full teardown.

Yes. Every vessel is engineered to AS 1210, registered with the relevant state WorkSafe authority where required, and supplied with full weld inspection records, PMI reports, hydrotest certificates and an IFI data book. ASME Section VIII and PED 2014/68/EU certification is available on request for export projects.

In most cases yes. The vertical, modular form factor means we can slot it under existing equipment or integrate it as a replacement of a rotary drum cooler or spray tower. Our engineers survey the site, run a thermal-mass balance, and produce retrofit piping and steel drawings within 3 weeks of order.