Advantages of Regenerators
The advantages of a regenerator over a recuperating (counter-flowing) heat exchanger is that it has a much higher surface area for a given volume, which provides a reduced exchanger volume for a given energy density, effectiveness and pressure drop. This makes a regenerator more economical in terms of materials and manufacturing, compared to an equivalent recuperator.
The design of inlet and outlet headers used to distribute hot and cold fluids in the matrix is much simpler in counter flow regenerators than recuperators. The reason behind this is that both streams flow in different sections for a rotary regenerator and one fluid enters and leaves one matrix at a time in a fixed-matrix regenerator. Furthermore flow sectors for hot and cold fluids in rotary regenerators can be designed to optimize pressure drop in the fluids. The matrix surfaces of regenerators also have self-cleaning characteristics, reducing fluid-side fouling and corrosion. Finally properties such as small surface density and counter-flow arrangement of regenerators make it ideal for gas-gas heat exchange applications requiring effectiveness exceeding 85%. The heat transfer coefficient is much lower for gases than for liquids, thus the enormous surface area in a regenerator greatly increases heat transfer.
Read more about this topic: Regenerative Heat Exchanger
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