What to heat the product pipeline with?
How to heat a process (industrial) pipeline with product?
This is a question that the people responsible for the company ask themselves every time it is necessary to maintain a certain temperature in the pipeline during the autumn-winter-spring period.
There are two ways out.
Output #1: heat the process (industrial) pipeline with a vapour satellite (steam heating).
Yes, this is a good method if the plant has a surplus of its own steam, which is not obtained from gas but, for example, from seed husks. In this case, it is sufficient to lay an additional small-diameter pipe along the heated pipeline and supply the steam through it. In this case, the operators will face a number of problems, such as: no possibility to regulate the temperature, expensive installation and operation, and it is difficult to identify a damaged pipe, while a leak will damage the thermal insulation, which will also have to be replaced.
Although, to be honest, there are advantages to steam heating, such as the steam is generated during the operation of the unit (if not by gas), and the energy costs are low. But many people who use steam heating do not recognise electric heating because they associate electricity with danger.
Output No. 2: heat the process (industrial) pipeline with electric heating (heating with heating cable).
It is also a good enough method, and there are quite a few advantages over vapour heating, such as, after installation of the thermal insulation, it functions without human intervention, it is possible to monitor and control the temperature, it is easier to identify a damaged heater (if there is one) and longer sections are possible.
But many people will say that electric heating has a number of big disadvantages. No arguments, of course it does, and we will voice them, they are such as, it is necessary to involve an external organisation in the procedure of use (this is not liked by many people), requires sufficiently qualified personnel to operate the electric heating, and there are electricity costs.
So why is it better to use electric heating rather than vapour heating?
The economic efficiency of electric heating is primarily due to the fact that in such a system the heating element is only the heating cable. Thus, the losses for energy supply to the heat sink (heated pipeline) are minimised. In contrast to the electric heating system, in a vapour heating system, the vapour supply piping, the distribution combs and the condensate drainage piping are hot. Even with the best insulation, there are heat losses. The operating costs for electric heating are on average 5-7 times lower than for vapour heating.
A steam heating system is rather difficult to control, which causes additional energy losses due to ambient temperature fluctuations. For electric heating, various control systems have been developed and are widely used: from a conventional thermostat to complex electric heating control systems that allow monitoring process temperatures in hundreds of pipelines from a single computer.
Another important performance indicator of an electric heating system is the service life. Here, electric heating is also superior to vapour heating. Thus, the service life of electric heating systems is at least 20 years, whereas the service life of vapour heating does not usually exceed 10 years. In addition, the service life of the thermal insulation is increased.
How to heat a process (industrial) pipeline with product?
This is a question that the people responsible for the company ask themselves every time it is necessary to maintain a certain temperature in the pipeline during the autumn-winter-spring period.
There are two ways out.
Output #1: heat the process (industrial) pipeline with a vapour satellite (steam heating).
Yes, this is a good method if the plant has a surplus of its own steam, which is not obtained from gas but, for example, from seed husks. In this case, it is sufficient to lay an additional small-diameter pipe along the heated pipeline and supply the steam through it. In this case, the operators will face a number of problems, such as: no possibility to regulate the temperature, expensive installation and operation, and it is difficult to identify a damaged pipe, while a leak will damage the thermal insulation, which will also have to be replaced.
Although, to be honest, there are advantages to steam heating, such as the steam is generated during the operation of the unit (if not by gas), and the energy costs are low. But many people who use steam heating do not recognise electric heating because they associate electricity with danger.
Output No. 2: heat the process (industrial) pipeline with electric heating (heating with heating cable).
It is also a good enough method, and there are quite a few advantages over vapour heating, such as, after installation of the thermal insulation, it functions without human intervention, it is possible to monitor and control the temperature, it is easier to identify a damaged heater (if there is one) and longer sections are possible.
But many people will say that electric heating has a number of big disadvantages. No arguments, of course it does, and we will voice them, they are such as, it is necessary to involve an external organisation in the procedure of use (this is not liked by many people), requires sufficiently qualified personnel to operate the electric heating, and there are electricity costs.
So why is it better to use electric heating rather than vapour heating?
The economic efficiency of electric heating is primarily due to the fact that in such a system the heating element is only the heating cable. Thus, the losses for energy supply to the heat sink (heated pipeline) are minimised. In contrast to the electric heating system, in a vapour heating system, the vapour supply piping, the distribution combs and the condensate drainage piping are hot. Even with the best insulation, there are heat losses. The operating costs for electric heating are on average 5-7 times lower than for vapour heating.
A steam heating system is rather difficult to control, which causes additional energy losses due to ambient temperature fluctuations. For electric heating, various control systems have been developed and are widely used: from a conventional thermostat to complex electric heating control systems that allow monitoring process temperatures in hundreds of pipelines from a single computer.
Another important performance indicator of an electric heating system is the service life. Here, electric heating is also superior to vapour heating. Thus, the service life of electric heating systems is at least 20 years, whereas the service life of vapour heating does not usually exceed 10 years. In addition, the service life of the thermal insulation is increased.
