Adding an electric heater to the distillation steam pipeline does not yield significant effects; what’s going on?
Thread Content
The original distillation system had a long reaction time, with low steam pressure and temperature – around 0.5 Mpa and 165°C. Therefore, a 35 kW electric heater was added to the main distillation steam line in order to raise the steam temperature; the target heating temperature was set at 200°C. However, tests conducted during recent production have shown that the temperature at the outlet of the electric heater can indeed reach 200°C, but this does not have a significant impact on the distillation process, and the reaction time remains long. Could anyone tell me what the reason for this is? After exiting the steam drum, the distillation steam passes through an electric heater and then is divided into three streams, which go respectively to the distillation columns A/B/C. See the figure below for details
In my opinion, the presence of the electric heater increases the resistance in the pipeline of this circuit; as a result, the amount of steam that exits the steam drum through the original pipeline is much greater than that passing through the pipeline with the electric heater. Although the outlet temperature of the electric heater reaches 200°C, this has little effect on the overall increase in steam temperature. The poster can measure the steam temperature before it enters the reactor; if the temperature increase is not significant, install shut-off valves on each of the two pipelines and try adjusting the steam flow.