Pushing the Physical Limits of Industrial Processes

In today's advanced equipment manufacturing and energy and chemical sectors, engineers are facing unprecedented extreme challenges. From subsea oil and gas production in water depths up to 3,000 m to hydrogen fuel refueling stations with pressures as high as 70 MPa, and further to fourth generation nuclear energy and supercritical power generation systems pursuing ultimate thermal efficiency, traditional heat exchange equipment can no longer adapt to these extreme operating conditions. Traditional shell and tube heat exchangers, while technologically mature, require exponentially thicker shell walls when handling high pressure media. This leads to massive equipment size and astonishing weight, making it impossible to meet the stringent lightweight requirements of offshore equipment. On the other hand, plate heat exchangers, whether gasketed or welded, are compact, but the nature of their plates and sealing structures means they cannot withstand pressures beyond 10 MPa or extremely high temperatures. Against this backdrop, the Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) emerged as a tailored solution. Benefiting from its precision-engineered thermal channel design and two core manufacturing processes—chemical etching and vacuum diffusion bonding—the PCHE achieves three major performance breakthroughs: ultra-high pressure resistance, tolerance to extreme temperature differentials, and an exceptionally compact structure. From an engineering application perspective, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of the application of PCHE developed by Shanghai Plate Heat Exchange Equipment Co., Ltd. (SHPHE) across key scenarios including hydrogen energy and offshore oil and gas.  

Hydrogen Energy Infrastructure: Managing High Pressure and Pre-cooling Duty

Hydrogen energy is recognized as the ultimate clean energy. However, hydrogen's intrinsic physical properties—extreme difficulty in compression and high leakage propensity—impose near-stringent requirements on core heat exchange equipment. With its unique design and manufacturing features, SHPHE's PCHE has become the core equipment for addressing high-pressure and cryogenic challenges in hydrogen energy applications.  

Engineering Challenges of Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS) Pre-cooling Systems

To extend the driving range of fuel cell vehicles, mainstream international refueling standards require high-pressure fast refueling at 70 MPa. The core technical challenge lies in this requirement: the heat exchanger must withstand ultra-high operating pressures—with a typical design pressure of 100 MPa—and tolerate severe pressure and temperature cycling. The PCHE developed by SHPHE features a maximum design pressure of up to 100 MPa, delivering reliable safety assurance for 70 MPa refueling operations. Its seamless core structure, formed through the diffusion bonding process, fundamentally eliminates the risk of leakage under high-pressure conditions.

Material selection: SHPHE utilizes 316L austenitic stainless steel or nickel-based alloys. These materials have excellent resistance to hydrogen embrittlement in high pressure hydrogen environments, effectively preventing hydrogen atoms from penetrating the metal lattice and causing brittle fracture.

Structural fatigue resistance: The base metal diffusion bonding of PCHE endows it with exceptional fatigue life. This enables the unit to withstand tens of thousands of pressure charge-discharge cycles throughout the full-service life of a hydrogen refueling station.  

Offshore Oil & Gas Engineering: Reducing the Footprint on Valuable Deck Space

On deep sea FPSOs (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading units) or drilling platforms, space and payload are highly cost-intensive resources. Every additional ton of weight added to a platform will significantly increase the cost of its underlying floating structure.  

Process Pain Point: Handling High-Pressure Natural Gas

Natural gas extracted from deep-sea operations features an extremely high pressure ranging from 10 to 20 MPa, typically coupled with high temperature and high humidity. Prior to pipeline transportation or liquefaction, it must undergo dehydration, heavy hydrocarbon removal, and interstage compressor cooling. If a shell and tube heat exchanger is adopted, its shell wall thickness must be excessively large to withstand 20 MPa pressures. When considering the flooded weight, the equipment's operational weight often reaches hundreds of tons. This not only takes up valuable deck space but also presents enormous challenges to the platform's center-of-gravity control and structural support systems. The heat transfer compactness of SHPHE's PCHE can reach up to 2500 m²/m³, with its weight reduced by approximately 80% compared to conventional shell and tube heat exchangers.  

Summary

In summary, SHPHE's PCHE products are not merely single-function heat exchangers, but comprehensive thermal solutions tailored specifically for extreme industrial scenarios.

Design Pressure & Temperature: With a pressure resistance of 100 MPa and temperature tolerance of 850°C, SHPHE's PCHE boasts distinct technological leadership advantages.

Manufacturing Processes: SHPHE has mastered the etching and welding processes for a diverse range of materials—from 304/316L austenitic stainless steels to seawater-resistant titanium, and nickel-based alloys suitable for high-temperature and highly corrosive media.

Manufacturing Scale: A single unit can deliver a heat exchange area of up to 8,000 m², demonstrating SHPHE's capability to support large-scale oil and gas and power projects.

Customization Services: Leveraging the flexibility of chemical etching, SHPHE can provide customers with fully customized channel configurations to achieve the optimal balance between pressure drop and heat transfer efficiency.