Questions regarding the heating setup for storing and transporting marine fuel oil at liquefied gas terminals?
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The company is a liquefied gas terminal operator that handles marine fuel oil, which requires heating; it has no prior experience in this area. Could someone please advise on what the appropriate heating temperature should be? Heating with steam, electricity, or heat transfer oil is better, provided that the required heating temperature is met. It would be even better if you could also provide information on the manufacturers of heat tracing equipment. Waiting for an expert; thank you very much.
Reply to 1# wcwcnb74110: For fuel oil, steam heating is generally used. Our company also employs steam heating; it’s cost-effective, though maintenance can be more complicated later on. A heating coil needs to be installed in the tank used for storing fuel oil, and steam is then used to heat it, with the temperature kept between 10–90°C
This depends on what grade of fuel oil is required on the ship. Generally speaking, in order to save energy consumption, the heating temperature should be maintained at around the fuel oil’s dew point plus 15 degrees. If it is too low, the fuel oil will have poor fluidity; if it is too high, it will lead to unnecessary waste of heating energy as well as pressure buildup in the pipelines. There are two heating methods I am familiar with: 1. Steam tracing. However, your company needs to have a boiler or a source of steam; this method is simple, but the temperature is difficult to control ； 2. Electric heat tracing. The temperature is controllable; as for power consumption, I haven’t calculated it yet. As a reminder, if electric heating is used, special attention must be paid to the way in which the heating strip is wrapped. It is essential that a loop is formed – that is, wrapping starts from one end and ends back at that same end. If a straight-through wrapping method is used (wrapping from one end to the other), local electromagnetic induction heating will occur, resulting in excessively high temperatures. Please keep this in mind. In one of the group’s refineries, the fuel oil pipeline experienced localized overheating due to issues with the way the heat tracing was installed, coupled with the fact that the pipeline was suspended in mid-air; these two factors led to an explosion of the oil and gas inside the pipeline.
It is recommended to use electric heating~~It seems like a more advanced approach. But if you already have steam available, don’t waste it
Can electric heating not meet the temperature requirements for marine fuel oil? What is the maximum temperature that electric heating can reach? Are there any information on equipment manufacturers?
Reply to 5# wcwcnb74110: You didn’t read my reply carefully. Electric heat tracing can meet the requirements, and the heating temperature is controllable; once the desired heating temperature is set, it will start and stop automatically. Of course, if your company already has a boiler, it’s better to use that one. From the perspective of energy consumption, I really haven’t calculated whether steam loss is lower or electric heating loss is lower. Hehe, let those who know the answer respond
Both systems have their advantages: 1. Electric heating can meet the heating requirements, saving time and effort; it is durable and maintenance-free when used within insulation layers, but it can only be used for heating pipelines. 2. When oil is released, heating is needed inside the tank, at which point electric heating is no longer sufficient, and steam heating is required instead
wcwcnb74110: For the questions you have for me, I’ll answer them here and share my experience. If there’s anything wrong in what I say, I hope other users will point it out. The 180# fuel oil you mentioned comes in two types: low-sulfur and high-sulfur. The freezing point of the low-sulfur variety is 12 degrees, while that of the high-sulfur variety is -4 degrees. In practice, we usually control the heating temperature of the oil at 15 degrees above its freezing point. Considering the kinematic viscosity of fuel oil and energy consumption control, for 180# fuel oil we generally keep the temperature around 35-40 degrees. While a higher temperature improves fluidity, it results in higher energy costs for heating ； On the other hand, when the temperature is too low, although the energy consumption for heating is low, the energy consumption of the oil transfer pump is high, and the oil filling speed is low. This is my work experience, provided as a reference for you.