Direct Fired Heater

In direct fired heater we fire fuel inside the furnace body and heat is absorbed by the

circulating thermic fluid inside the furnace coils. This fluid can be furnace oil, natural

gas or coal. However, natural gas is the cleanest fuel among all three options. In

comparison with electric heater, direct fired heater require lots of controls for efficient

of safe operation of the furnace. These controls include fuel flow control, combustion

air control, stake temperature and excess air control etc. When we compare this with

electrical heater, there we have one control which cuts the electricity supply if hot oil

supply temperature goes beyond set point. To understand direct fired heater

operation and controls you can refer to the figure in Process Details section.

Hot Oil Tank

In thermic fluid system hot oil tank is required for thermic fluid storage and dumping.

When I say dumping it means during plant shutdown or in case of any leakage, we

need to drain complete thermic fluid from the system. This we do for the

maintenance or repair work.

Hot oil tanks should be provided with a proper size vent. And the vent of this tank we

should connect to a hot oil vent condenser. You must take care the expansion of

thermic fluid during finalizing the volume of hot oil tank. For example, if you take 1
m3 volume of thermic fluid at atmosphere temperature then at 250 0C it will expand

by around 20%.

Furthermore, we should provide proper insulation to the tank. When we dump the oil,

it is very hot, so for personal safety insulation is must.

Hot Oil Expansion Tank

As you can see from name itself, the service of this equipment is to take care the

expansion of thermic inside the system. We install this equipment at highest level

inside the plant. We should ensure that the elevation difference between expansion

tank and the highest-level consumer is minimum 3 meters.