Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
(OP)
I am in the process of designing a new plant that requires a hot oil heater for process heating. I am trying to determine which is more cost effective to heat hot oil - natural gas or electricity? Plant is in TX. I estimate the heat load to be around 2,000,000 BTU / hr. Temperature of the hot oil will be maintained at 400 oF.





RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
certainly, the supply of resources will need to be addressed, but then again, location is in texas where there is an abundance of energy supply.
-pmover
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
Take it from another Texan: this is a no-brainer. A direct fired heater with natural gas as fuel beats an electrical resistance heater everytime - and by a big margin.
There is no environmental issue in Texas, except a permit to fire. At a heat load of 2 MMBtuh, I would not hesitate to commence my engineering and planning based on using Natural gas. However, if you were working under me in Process design, I would require an economic calculation to justify the decision based on fuel and total operating and Capital costs.
There is no "abundance" of Natural gas (in Texas or any other US state); however, when you have to burn Natural gas to produce the electricity anyway, it doesn't take much brain cells to figure out that if there is no Natural gas, there is no electricity anyway! I presume you are going to heat a DowTherm fluid or something similar. Good Luck.
Art Montemayor
Spring, TX
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
I don't think you can achieve the 400 oF oil temperature that dlefin proposes by using conventional steam utility pressures and boilers. You'd have to go as high as 300+ psig or higher, rather than the conventional 150 - 200 psig range. However, your point is a great addition to the list of competitive heating methods is such a level of steam supply exists. If it does exist, I suspect it would win out as the winning candidate.
Art Montemayor
Spring, TX
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
This is my first time using this forum. I am very impressed with how this works.
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
An added benefit: if the material heated is thermally sensitive, you may protect it by keeping metal skin temperatures low enough.
This is a subject that only dlefin can tell when doing the full economic analysis.
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?
Stefan
RE: Hot Oil Heater - Natural Gas or Electric Heating?