In this study, a plate heat exchanger was developed for applying to a heat pump system using the heated effluent from a thermal power plant. Since seawater is used as a heat source and a heat sink in this heat pump system, Titanium was chosen as the heat plate material for its high corrosion resistance. One of the purposes of the study was to get an optimized distribution area in the heat plate in order that better thermal performances could be achieved through equal flow rates along the heat transfer area. It was revealed from the performance tests that the mean heat transfer rate and the overall heat transfer coefficient were enhanced by 2.9% and 7.7%, respectively, compared to those measured before the design optimization.