Systems heat tracing of piping

This cylindrical, low-pressure, horizontal tank had a design rating of about 5 psig (0.3 bar). A steam coil heated this tank. The transfer line to the tank was steam traced and insulated to keep it clear, but the heat tracing and insulation system on the inlet transfer piping was less than ideal. The inlet piping had to be dismantled on several occasions to clear it because of solidification in the fine. (See Figure 6—18.) [7]... 

A selection of components surface-mounted to carrier plates is shown in Figure 4.34. The carrier plates support the internal fluidic pipes and can also be equipped with electrical heaters to permit trace heating of the fluid. The surface-mounted components of this system are compatible with the backbone concept introduced in the following. 

The entire 8-inch (20 cm) piping system was insulated and steam traced except for the heater tubes within the heater. Operations assumed the heat transfer fluid froze in the four heater tube passes. Each pass was a bare 4-inch (10 cm) diameter heater tube with 5 bends and the equivalent of 72 ft. (22 m) of straight pipe. The foreman and the operations team discussed the situation and decided to light and maintain a small fire on the burner to slowly thaw the material in the heater tubes. This method had been successful for a startup several weeks earlier. 

High heat output. Due to its high temperature, a steam tracing system provides a large amount of heat to the pipe. There is a very high heat transfer rate between the metallic tracer and a metallic pipe. 

In the bottom-drive system, the vessel cover is free of drive components, allowing space for additional process nozzles, manholes, explosion venting, etc., as well as a temperature lance for direct, continuous product temperature measurement in the vessel. The top cover of the vessel is easily heated by either a half-pipe coil or heat tracing, which ensures that no vapor condensation will occur in the process area. 

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