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Old 03-21-14, 05:02 PM   #4
jfweaver
Lurking Renovator
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: SC
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I do have a few questions. Will you be operating at or near the phase change point of ~133F enough to take advantage of it? How will you deal with the flammability concerns? I could see issues with it solidifying on your heat exchangers (which will likely be below the 133F where the wax solidifies. If you put your heat exchangers low enough in the water tank to keep away from the wax, you would be in cooler water due to stratification.

How about a pair of tanks inside of each other, with the paraffin on the outside, and the water in an inner tank? You would want the inner tank to be metallic or made of a material which would transfer the heat from the hot water to the cold paraffin, and then conversely from the hot paraffin to the cold water. This would alleviate any issues that you would have with paraffin solidifying on a heat exchanger, and allow you to keep your heat exchangers in the hottest area of the water. If the paraffin tank is metallic and has a cover that will close automatically (i.e. with gravity when you let it go). That should alleviate most/any of the flammability issues. A place I worked at had parts washers filled with acetone setup this way.
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