Can copper heat exchangers use ethylene glycol as a cooling medium?
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In screw chiller units, the oil cooler and the fluorine coolant system use cooling water in their tube sides. Due to the low temperatures in northern regions during winter, 25% ethylene glycol is used as the cooling water to prevent freezing when the equipment is shut down. However, after a few days, it was observed that the solution containing ethylene glycol turned blue, resulting in poor heat exchange efficiency. After researching online, it was found that copper oxide must have formed in the cooling water. Copper is the most commonly used material for heat exchangers; so what kind of cooling water should be used to prevent freezing? Perhaps I’m not using the ethylene glycol correctly, as a small amount of carbon dioxide dissolves in the water due to leaks
Prolonged use of ethylene glycol leads to hydrolysis, making the solution acidic and causing corrosion. Corrosion inhibitors (such as sulfonates) are added
Keeping the coolant neutral or slightly alkaline can solve the problem.
Ethylene glycol is commonly used in factories; how can alkalinity and acidity be maintained? Does calcium chloride, which contains chloride ions, be corrosive to stainless steel? How to break it
The code for copper material is TP2. What are the common antifreezes?
Copper pipes turn blue when exposed to corrosive solutions. Ethylene glycol solutions are corrosive to copper pipes; while ethylene glycol is effective for preventing freezing, its corrosive nature needs to be addressed. Our company previously used ethylene glycol and encountered corrosion issues, so we switched to another product. It has been in use for 4 years now with no signs of corrosion, and I’ve forgotten the exact name of that product. The manufacturer is Chaoyang Guangda Chemical Industry – you can look up information about them on Baidu.
Is it calcium chloride? Propylene glycol? Glycerin?
The plate exchanger is made of stainless steel; a brazed type is required for a design pressure of 2.5 MPa, but it’s too expensive! ! !
I heard that the heat transfer coefficient of copper is said to be twenty times that of stainless steel! ! !