ELECTRIC HEATING


MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM FUEL-BURNING TO ELECTRIC


Decarbonisation is high on the agenda for many industrial organisations. They can embrace this, however, by shifting their process heater systems from fuel-burning to electric.


Dennis Long, chief system designer for the energy and environmental technologies business unit at industrial heating equipment manufacturer Watlow, explains how manufacturers can make the electric switch, and why it should happen sooner rather than later


A


ccording to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a substantial portion of


global greenhouse gas emissions comes from industrial sources burning fossil fuels, with much of this energy burned on-site for energy and heating needs. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the industrial sector uses approximately 24 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of heat per year — roughly one third of the nation’s delivered energy supply. Process heating applications alone account for 36% of total delivered energy consumption within the manufacturing sector. As a result, the pressures to decarbonise and


electrify wherever possible are increasing. The demand is not being urged just by governments, but also from non-profits and business leaders for quite a few years too. For example, in 2018, the Bank of England stated the financial sector has been ‘too slow in divesting investments into fossil fuels’ and warned that assets could become useless. Then, in May 2021, after years of protests, a Dutch court ruled that global energy and petrochemical company, Shell Energy, must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. In a recent survey, Watlow found that over 90%


of respondents in the gas and oil industry have developed, or are in the process of developing, a long-term strategy to reach sustainable, low carbon site statuses.


ELECTRIFYING HEAT Electrification of process heating is one of the key strategies for addressing climate change concerns in oil and gas. Electric heaters do not burn fossil fuels and can be powered via renewable energy sources. Electric heat exchangers are no stranger to oil and gas operations, but historically, they have been used only in applications with a name plate under one megawatt (MW). However, there is growing potential


ammonia production and carbon recycling. Besides reducing the use of fossil fuels,


electric heaters and heat exchangers have other advantages including less thermal lag, safer operation, more uniform distribution of heat and smaller overall footprint.


“According to the


Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a substantial


proportion of global greenhouse emissions comes from industrial sources burning fossil fuels, with much of this energy burned on-site for energy and heating needs”


to use electric heaters for applications requiring more than one MW but less than 15 MW. These span several areas, including oil and gas production, but also renewable fuel production,


POWERSAFE What matters most in achieving process heating parameters is not the method of heating, but the heat flux of the heating surface. When it comes to these kinds of applications, electric


heaters can safely achieve operating temperatures comparable to gas-fired heaters and with better uniformity and control.


Watlow, which has manufactured industrial electric heaters for almost a


century, has recently introduced its POWERSAFE integrated medium voltage control and heating solution — a safe, reliable and clean replacement for fossil fuel alternatives in process equipment. The POWERSAFE system integrates an electric


heat exchanger, process controller and power system, as well as an isolated low voltage enclosure including a human machine interface (HMI) and programmable logic controller (PLC). It also incorporates a flexible combination of a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) and contactor circuits up to 20 MW, delivering high-efficiency power greater than 99 per cent, which reduces the overall size and weight of the solution. Furthermore, wattage size requirements for


electric thermal equipment are increasing, which makes medium voltage solutions attractive because they reduce overall installation costs of unnecessary cables and transformers. It also offers additional safety benefits such as a high-speed protective relay and breaker for rapid shut down to protect personnel and equipment and safety interlocks for protection during operation. A medium voltage solution, such as POWERSAFE,


can to make the transition from fuel to electric as seamless as possible.


Watlow www.watlow.com


38 ENERGY MANAGEMENT - Summer 2022 www.energymanagementmag.co.uk

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