Time to Prepare for Winter

Chemical Processing Magazine

<<Winter can hamper delivery of process fluids and compromise the performance of utlity systems. Steam tracing can assusure smooth operations during cold weather. Here are guidelines for properly designing and installing such tracing.>>

Early Steam Tracing

SteamOnline.com

<<For decades, steam tracing has been an accepted practice in the heating of piping, vessels and equipment. Steam tracing has been used in industrial processing plants for over a century. Early on, steam jacketing and tubular tracing became the chosen means of keeping the contents of pipes at required temperatures. As refineries and chemical plants expanded in size and product diversity following World War II, electric-tracing methods were developed to provide thermostatic control for low-temperature and heat-sensitive materials. There are applications where one method may show to advantage over the other, but today steam tracing continues to be the most widely used method of heat tracing in industrial plants around the world.>>

Ensuring Uniform Heat Distribution in High-Temperature Process Piping [DEAD LINK]

ChemicalProcessing.com

<<Piping for some hot process applications requires thermal maintenance devices to keep stream-end piping temperatures within specific limits. In such cases, conventional pipe jacketing has been regarded as a sufficient, but often very expensive, option. One alternative to pipe jacketing, tube tracing, does not effectively prevent problems caused by temperature variations along the process pipe wall. Frequently, tube tracing is used as an economical way to compensate for heat loss. In low-temperature applications with broad temperature envelopes, steam tracing can be effective. However, in these types of applications, the position of the tracers and the temperature distribution in the pipe material are not considered important. A new system for process temperature maintenance and uniform pipe wall temperatures consists of contoured bolt-on trace elements. Comparable in price to tube tracing, these elements are positioned strategically after heat dynamics in the operating piping system are modeled. To prevent problems caused by unwanted heat variation, frequently the key is ensuring uniform pipe wall temperature. To accomplish this, it is necessary to manage the heat distribution in the pipe wall.>>

Process Steam Tracing

Ogontz Corporation

<<Many process fluids require some degree of heating and temperature regulation in piping and storage tanks. Some products are affected by temperature changes; their chemical and physical characteristics (corrosiveness, color, viscosity, etc.) change. Other products will experience problems in pumping and handling if the product temperatures are too low or too high. And, many batch mixing operations have to be conducted within some finite temperature range. Process temperature control of liquids in piping or tanks differs from the winterizing of piping, tanks and equipment (discussed in the previous section) because seasonal systems are primarily concerned with preventing damage due to freezing from low ambient temperatures. With process temperature control, it is necessary to guard against overheating as well as freezing conditions. Thus, in process temperature control the liquids must be maintained between a lower temperature limit and a higher temperature limit. Cost is another consideration. Significant energy is wasted in heating process fluids to higher than necessary temperatures. >>

Ensuring Uniform Heat Distribution in Process Piping

Process-Heating.com

<<A look at two case histories shows how a bolt-on heating system provides more uniform temperatures on process piping. Certain hot process piping services require thermal maintenance devices to keep stream temperatures within design limits. In such cases, conventional pipe jacketing has been regarded as sufficient but often too expensive. An alternative to pipe jacketing, tube tracing, does not effectively prevent problems caused by temperature variations along the process pipe wall. Frequently, tube tracing is used as an economical way to try and compensate for heat loss. In low temperature applications with broad temperature envelopes, steam tracing can be effective. However, in those applications, the position of the tracers and the temperature distribution in the pipe material are not considered important.>>

CSI Bolt-On Technology

Controls Southeast, Inc.

<<Historically, the chemical industry has defaulted to one of two ways to maintain process temperatures - fabricated jacketed systems or tube tracing. Often the process requirements of our customers are such that the expense of a jacketed system is excessive, but the performance capability of tube tracing is inadequate. So, CSI developed two bolt-on heating products. ControHeat and ControTrace, which provide unique benefits that the traditional systems cannot. As a general rule, CSI Bolt-On technology will provide equivalent thermal maintenance in 80% of the applications where jacketed pipe is used. The CSI Bolt-On System provides considerably higher thermal performance than electrical or tube tracing.>>

Electrical Heat Tracing Can Minimize Piping Temperature Variation

PM Engineer

Heat Tracing System Selection [DEAD LINK]

Chemical Processing Magazine