BACKGROUND
Food processing facilities have hot and humid process vent streams, often with entrained oil or other byproducts of the processes. Some streams are regulated for emissions and have substantial investments in pollution control equipment to comply with discharge requirements. Other streams are simply vented, due to the limitations of traditional heat transfer equipment to handle entrained particulates or relatively low heat content.

Beverage facilities frequently vent excess steam from their processes. Steam boilers typically generate steam to provide heat for pasteurization and washing operations to meet USDA, FDA and other requirements.

SOLUTION
For food and beverage facilities, the Direct Contact LLC (DCLLC) Heat Recovery System overcomes the limitations of traditional heat recovery equipment by recovering otherwise wasted heat from process vents and returning the heat to processes in the form of hot water. Using a two-chambered version of the patented design, the DCLLC Heat Recovery Vessel’s first chamber ‘conditions’ dirty gas by removing the majority of particulates and condensing high-boiling contaminants (e.g., oils) before sending the conditioned gas to the heat recovery chamber. The custom-designed unit recovers both latent and sensible heat in the gas stream and sends it back to processes. For relatively clean processes, such as brewing or simple water boiling, a single-stage system can recover heat directly to process use or to a heat exchanger, where the heat can be transferred to a potable water stream.

DIRECT BENEFITS
The overall heat efficiency of the food and beverage processes increase dramatically while the waste streams emitted from the processes are reduced in volume as well; hot water supplied by these systems can displace “virgin” heat. Energy savings can quickly add up to offset the initial purchase and installation costs of the DCLLC Heat Recovery System and start to contribute to the facility’s bottom line profitability.

Considering that the DCLLC Heat Recovery System reduces volume to the vent stream and can also function as a pre-scrubber, this system allows downstream pollution-control equipment to be significantly downsized and run with reduced loading. Reductions in steam plume volumes and odors also benefits public relations.