The plant is made of a product collecting tank, a pumping set and a number of concentric tube heat exchangers which allow the passage of the product in a ring-shaped crown by means of the external jacket and an additional inner tube to let heating and cooling fluids flow.
During the heating phase, the tube bundle heat exchangers are crossed, both in the external jacket and in the additional inner tube, by overheated water, which transfers heat to the product to heat it; during the cooling phase, the tube bundle heat exchangers are crossed by the cooling fluid such as water from tower, well, as well as chilly or glycol water.
The plant includes the thermal stop, the product re-cycle set when the sterilization temperature is not reached and the required instrumentation for the automatic control of the whole sterilizer.
Benefits:
- High efficiency in the thermal exchange which can minimize the time in which the product remains in the plant as well as the product’s thermal degradation.
- Heating and cooling fluids flow in counter-current with respect to the product for a maximum efficiency in the thermal exchange.
- The product inner tubes, unlike the competitors’ solutions, do not require product re-mixing wings with the relevant advantage that there are no problem of any product stop during the heating cycle and, therefore, there are no risks of product burning and dirtying the thermal exchange tubes.
- The absence of these wings makes it possible to quickly disassemble the inner plugs of tubes and ensures that during the disassembly there are no tube abrasions which may subsequently cause dirtying.