Formaldehyde converters, heat exchangers, columns, vessels, and thermal process equipment engineered for demanding chemical service.
Formaldehyde is a building block for resins, plastics, coatings and adhesives, and the plants that make it run continuously on equipment that has to hold a reaction, move a lot of heat and resist the stream at the same time.
Harris Thermal fabricates formaldehyde converters and the thermal, recovery and storage equipment around them, built to the process design and material requirements each project defines.
Formaldehyde is produced by more than one route, and the converter is not the same piece of equipment in each. Catalyst type, operating temperature, tube geometry, metallurgy and the heat-removal arrangement all change with the process technology the plant is built around.
Harris Thermal fabricates to the design basis supplied by the producer, the EPC or the process licensor. We bring the fabrication and material judgement; the process design stays with the party that owns it.
Stainless and duplex stainless steels cover most formaldehyde and resin duty, with carbon steel on structural and utility service and high-nickel alloys where the stream demands them. See our materials and metallurgy capability, and our current certifications.
What each alloy defeats and what destroys it — the selection problem behind every converter, condenser and absorber in corrosive chemical duty.
Formaldehyde converters and reactors, shell-and-tube heat exchangers, condensers, absorber and process columns, evaporators, scrubber vessels, crystallizers, ASME Section VIII pressure vessels, and storage and mixing tanks. Harris Thermal fabricates equipment to the process design provided by the producer, EPC or process licensor; it does not supply the process technology or a complete production plant.
The converter is the reactor where methanol is converted to formaldehyde over a catalyst. It is a heat-transfer-intensive vessel: the reaction is strongly exothermic, so the converter has to remove heat while holding the catalyst at the temperature the process requires. That combination — reactor duty and heat exchanger duty in one fabricated unit — is why converters are built as custom equipment rather than selected from a catalog.
Harris Thermal fabricates converters and associated equipment to the customer, EPC or process-licensor requirements supplied for the project. Converter configuration, metallurgy, tube geometry and thermal requirements vary by process technology, and the design basis comes from the party that owns the process. Send the specification and our engineers will work through the fabrication and material requirements with you.
Stainless steels, duplex stainless, carbon steel and high-nickel alloys, with other qualified specialty materials available where the service requires them. Selection follows the stream, temperature and corrosion conditions defined in the process specification. See our materials and metallurgy capability for the full range.
Send the process specification and the equipment you need. Our engineers will work through the fabrication with you.