Theoretical and Experimental Characterizationof a Soft Polymer Heat Exchanger forWastewater Heat Recovery

Abstract: Wastewater released from showers, sinks, and washers contains a considerable amount of wasteheat that can be recovered by using a heat exchanger. Conventional metal heat exchangers for wastewater heat recovery have common problems of corrosion, fouling and clogging, which makes it necessary to develop a new type of heat exchanger for such low-grade thermalenergy recovery applications. This study deals with a novel patented polymer heat exchanger (WO2020049233A1) made of soft polyurethane tubes that are capable of oscillation once subjected to external forces. Laboratory tests coupled with theoretical analyses show a stable global heat transfer coefficient of 100-110 W/m2·K, in between the ideal parallel flow and crossflow heat exchangers. The theoretical calculations indicate that the performance of polymer heat exchanger can achieve 62-92% of the performance of titanium, aluminium, and copperheat exchangers with the same dimensions and working conditions. It further reveals that the performance of the soft heat exchanger can be enhanced by 30% when it is under oscillation. In addition, the results of thermal resistance study show that the total thermal resistance issignificantly higher in the model of parallel flow than in crossflow. Moreover, in the parallel flow, the external convective thermal resistance appears to be the dominant one instead of heat conduction through the wall material.