The growth in the sector is due to the increasing investments from public and private bodies, which are leading to the construction of new manufacturing plants and augmented capacity of the existing ones. This is, in turn, resulting in a rise in the demand for various raw materials and machines utilized at chemical plants.
Hence, with the expansion of the chemical sector, the heat exchangers market is also growing across the world. A heat exchanger transfers heat from one device to another, which makes it ideal for heating as well as cooling purposes. Apart from the chemical sector, these instruments also find widespread usage in the heating ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC-R), petrochemical and oil & gas, power, and food & beverages sectors.
All these industries require heating and cooling for some or the other purposes; for instance, in the food and beverages sector, most food stuff is cooked in hot oil, baked in the oven, and cooled in blast freezers, which is why these manufacturing plants install heat exchangers. Similarly, in the power sector, the fossil fuels are first burned, to create pressurized steam, and after the turbine has been spun, the water is cooled down before discharging. HVAC-R is another important application area of heat exchangers, as all these appliances deal with is heating and cooling indoor spaces.
Plate & frame, shell & tube, printed circuit, and air-cooled are the major types of heat exchangers available for purchase. Among these, the shell & tube variants have been the most popular up till now, and the situation is not expected to change much in the coming years. This would be a result of the huge growth in the petrochemicals and chemicals industries, which are the major end users of these types of heat exchangers. With time and technological advancements, hybrid heat exchangers have become a trend.
This is because of the manufacturing processes which are continuously changing, due to the rising demand for newer, more-advanced, and complex products. Hybrid heat exchanging devices are more efficient and offer companies higher flexibility. In addition, these variants are smaller in size and lower in weight, which proves to be quiet a help in places where not much space is available for machines, such as the oil and gas rigs in the sea. With the rapidly surging demand for oil and gas, exploration and production (E&P) activities are increasing, especially in offshore fields, which is leading to the rising preference for hybrid heat exchangers.
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to be one of the fastest-growing heat exchangers markets in the coming years, owing to the high chemical output of regional countries, especially China and India. The Make in India initiative aims to up the country’s share in global chemical exports, by inviting heavy investments and transfer of technology. In addition, China and Japan are already two of the world’s largest chemical producers. Furthermore, the power, food and beverages and HVAC-R sectors are also growing in the region, as a result of its booming population.
Therefore, the expansion of end-use industries will keep raising the demand for heat exchanging devices around the world.
