Direct Contact Inc., Heat Recovery Systems

Direct Contact Inc. (DCI) Heat Recovery Systems are designed to effectively close loops in a facility’s “heat gap” by returning previously wasted heat to useful service within the facility.

Let’s face it, ENERGY IS NOT CHEAP!! Rising fuel costs, increased regulations on the waste streams our factories generate, and highly competitive markets all contribute to an ever-increasing focus on maximizing the efficiency of every process under our control.

Many industrial processes expel heat or steam with limited or no heat recovery system in place. All of these systems consume fuel to raise the temperature of a given process and most of them lose a significant portion of the heat they generate to combustion exhaust, process vents, the product itself or miscellaneous leakage. Steam systems, boilers, cooking and brewing processes and drying operations of all sorts have the potential for recovering at least a portion of their vented waste heat.

Of course, these concepts are not new ones, but incentives are continually rising to examine where additional savings can be realized.

The rallying cry of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ is no longer only found on VW bumpers and the pop can machines, but echoes in the boardrooms and management meetings of businesses of all kinds and of any size.

It wasn’t so long ago that some managers considered energy to be “too cheap” to bother recovering and some heat losses, especially those associated with fouling –prone streams, were “too problematic” to deal with.

Enter Direct Contact Inc. The systems designed, built and proven in the field by DCI and their clients, are effectively recovering heat (and saving fuel) in a variety of applications. These applications range from relatively clean to fouling-prone streams and the systems continue to perform well in both types of environments.

The fuel savings is only one aspect of the efficiencies provided by the DCI design. Because the temperature of the hot gas stream is driven below its dew point, a significant amount of otherwise vented water vapor is recovered as well. In a hydrocarbon combustion exhaust, the water of combustion is also recovered and returned to process, making the DCI system a ‘net producer’ of water.

Still another benefit of the DCI design is the reduction of CO2 emissions from the client facility. This is simply a result of the higher efficiency of the heating process involved, offsetting the need to burn as much fuel to do the same job.

Fuel Use Down = WIN

Water Use Down = WIN

CO2 Emissions Down = WIN