With decades of global experience in the energy industry, Sigma Thermal knows how to provide robust industrial solutions designed and engineered to meet even the most demanding client specifications. Our biomass fired energy systems provide minimal emissions and finite combustion control, all while accepting a wide range of waste fuels with varying sizes, chemical compositions, and moisture content.
Sigma Thermal’s reciprocating grate furnace allows for the efficient, complete combustion of waste materials with high ash, high moisture content and low heating value. Keep reading for more information about how these systems work as well as the different energy delivery systems that we offer.
How Does a Biomass System Work?
Biomass energy systems all generally consist of three components—fuel handling, ash handling, a furnace, and a control system. Biomass equipment employs these four systems to convert raw organic material into fuel in a series of steps:
Fuel preparation. Before biomass equipment can effectively handle raw material, it must process and prepare the biomass used for fuel production. Solid, liquid, and gas biomass all require different processing techniques to ensure consistency and efficiency, such as drying, screening, grinding, and separating.
Fuel intake and handling. The fuel handling system includes the initial feed and an intermediate storage bin. Fuel moves from the feed to the storage bin, where specialized equipment measures it out and subsequently distributes it into the furnace and onto the reciprocating grate.
Material combustion. Biomass energy systems heat and combust the prepared materials with process heating equipment, achieving drying and gasification by creating hot gases that will move along through the next steps of the process.
Gas capture. Newly created hot gases move through two chambers, the upper combustion chamber and the secondary combustion chamber, which capture and store the gases for future use. Burning biomass for energy generates carbon dioxide as a byproduct, so proper gas capture and removal is crucial to keeping carbon emissions low.
Ash handling. Lastly, the ash handling system captures the grate ash byproduct, which is dropped from ash hoppers to the ash conveyor. This conveyor is submerged underwater for improved ash management and transports the ash outside of the system where it can be collected and disposed of.
Energy Delivery Systems & Equipment for Enhanced Performance
Bio energy systems provide several benefits over traditional energy generation solutions, including enhanced performance, efficiency, and more. Biomass fired energy systems are a source of renewable energy, which makes them eligible for a host of benefits like Renewables Energy Certificates (RECs) for each MWh of power created or even process heat RECs. . Not only is biomass renewable, but it also boasts carbon savings that have both environmental and financial benefits, especially in the industrial sector.
Biomass energy delivery systems are also incredibly efficient regarding total cost and material usage. Advanced gasification technology like the processes described above can have up to 80-90% thermal efficiency, which drastically reduces input costs and expands profit margins. Operational fuel cost savings and reduced fuel price volatility are other key benefits of biomass energy since organic waste energy sources are much more available and abundant than nonrenewable sources of fuel. Finally, biomass fired energy is considered an efficient combined heat and power (CHP) system as it simultaneously generates both heat and electricity.
At Sigma Thermal, we offer several different types of energy delivery systems:
Biomass Fired Hot Gas Generators. These systems cleanly generate hot gas for direct heating requirements.
Biomass Fired Thermal Fluid Heaters. Built for indirect heating, these systems use thermal oil or fluid.
Thermal Oil to Steam Generation. These systems use a thermal oil heat exchanger to generate low-pressure steam.
Let Our Process Heating Experts Assist You
Partner with our team of industry veterans to unlock the benefits of bio energy systems. From highly engineered process heating equipment to standard packaged heaters, Sigma Thermal’s dedicated experts know how to find the perfect biomass energy systems for your individual needs. We believe that successful energy delivery systems require not only advanced industry knowledge and applied field experience but also exceptional customer service every step of the way. These three keys to success bind our team together and provide a powerful framework for consistently crafting exceptional biomass equipment and processes.
Direct fired heaters use one of three possible methods for heat transfer:
Radiant-convective heat
Radiant heat
Convection heat
Radiant–convective style direct fired heaters are a popular style of heater and are used more often than not. These heaters utilize a bare tube radiant zone in combination with a bare / finned convection section. The most typical configurations are vertical cylindrical, A-frame, and cabin style. Sigma Thermal offers all types of direct fired radiant–convective heater designs including API 560 compliant systems.
Convection style direct fired heaters provide the benefits of a direct-fired heater, but eliminates some of the drawbacks associated with radiant heat transfer. In specific temperature-sensitive applications, radiant heat transfer can be undesirable, as radiant heat transfer tends to be more harsh and unevenly distributed around the coil surface. To minimize the impact effect of the radiant heat transfer to the process coil, Sigma Thermal’s convection style direct fired heaters are designed to utilize a separate combustion chamber and flue gas recirculation. With this design, the combustion chamber temperatures are reduced to 1,400°F.
API 560 Heaters vs Non API Heaters
Convection or radiant-convective direct-fired heaters can be designed using API RP 560 guidelines and practices created for fired heaters used for general refinery service. These guidelines are established by the American Petroleum Institute (API). Typically if the application involves the direct heating of crude oil, API560/ISO 13705 standard design guidelines will apply. For almost all other applications (i.e. regeneration gas, thermal oil heating, water, glycol, and temperature gases), more optimal designs are available that lower the capital and installed cost, footprint, fabrication, installation time, and freight cost. A practical strategy to use to obtain an API-style design, without incurring unnecessary costs for irrelevant design elements (that are not useful for some applications), is to use API 560 as a guideline with key exceptions.
5 Applications for Direct Fired Heaters
Regeneration Gas Heating
Regeneration gas heaters remove unwanted moisture from high-temperature process streams, such as natural gas. The wet gas runs through a desiccant-style or molecular sieve bed drying system that captures moisture from the fluid stream, leaving a purer form of the gas that is ready for additional processing and storage. The regeneration gas heater then dries the desiccant so it can be reused. Regeneration gas heating systems are also common in air separation facilities, where water and carbon dioxide are removed from the surrounding air, allowing air to be cooled into a liquid.
Process Air Heating
Process air heating, in combustion turbine systems, improves combustion ability and the reliability of the system. Process air heating also temperature control for process air, either at specific locations or facility-wide. Common examples of this type of heater include water-glycol systems and thermal oil systems. Robust, reliable, and long-lasting, process air heating systems see frequent use for precision temperature control in commercial food processing ovens and feeding heated air into industrial process consumers.
Viscosity Reduction
Heating heavy liquids reduces their viscosity, reducing the level of power required to pump and transport them in process systems and pipelines. This process has become common to facilitate easier transportation of crude oil and its various derivatives. Overheating crude oil will damage it and reduce its quality, making precision control essential during viscosity reduction processes.
Skid-mounted indirect heating systems are often used near oil wells in remote locations, offering precision temperature control by heating oil through a heating medium. Some operations also use direct oil heating, which can be managed properly using low watt-density electric heating elements and convection-only style direct-fired heaters.
Inline Liquid or Gas Heating
In opposition to tank heaters or full process system heaters, inline heaters provide heat for fluids at a specific point in a process, making the fluid ready for its intended purpose. By only heating the gas or liquid that’s immediately needed, users significantly reduce energy consumption and associated expenses. Inline heaters may be either direct-fired or electric, depending on their intended application.
Thermal Oil Heating
Thermal oil heating systems provide indirect heating using thermal oil as a heat transfer medium. Thermal oil provides an ideal medium for high-temperature operation, facilitating temperatures up to 600°F with organic oils, or up to 800°F with synthetic oils. Thermal oil heating has broad applications, including reboilers, tank heating, press heating, and numerous other industrial use cases. Thermal oil heating systems work well for processes that require high-temperature operation and precision control.
Sigma Thermal Solutions
The above guide demonstrates the impressive versatility of direct fired heating systems. Whether you need to design a unit to suit one of the applications we’ve discussed here or an entirely new purpose, Sigma Thermal Solutions can produce direct fired heaters customized to your demands. Our business serves customers from an array of industries, including aerospace, agriculture, automotive manufacturing, chemical processing, food processing, gas production, mining, oil processing, power generation, paper manufacturing, wastewater processing, and more.
Our signature Sigma Thermal convection-style, API 560, and non-API radiant-convective heaters range from 1MM to 80 MM BTU per hour.To learn more about ordering direct fired heaters, contact an expert from Sigma Thermal Solutions today.
Sigma Thermal Solutions was founded on the belief there are three keys to success: exceptional engineering knowledge, practical field experience, and honest customer service. We look forward to helping you fulfill all your company’s heating needs!
Certain types of heating systems, such as closed-looped thermal fluid heating systems, can use glycol to maintain heat transfer fluid to the desired temperature. While water is an ideal heat transfer medium for a certain range of temperatures, pure water has drawbacks. It can freeze below 32° F and it can corrode the internals of a heating system. Also referred to as antifreeze, glycol lowers the freezing temperature of the mixtures it is added to and it ensures that harsh weather conditions do not cause heating systems to freeze. In addition, glycol raises the boiling point of water to some degree, allowing for higher operating temperatures with less operating pressure than pure water. Glycol is also frequently purchased with corrosion inhibitors that reduce corrosion inside of the system over time.
Why Are Glycol Heaters Important?
Without adding glycol to a heating system, expensive and potentially dangerous damage to process equipment can occur. If the heating system is shut off for some time during the winter, the system and its pipes can freeze and burst, causing water damage. In addition to preventing system freezing, glycol mixtures are also a very efficient heat transfer medium compared to oils or water alone. Water and glycol mixtures have a better heat capacity than oils and perform well in many types of heaters. There are temperature limitations relative to thermal oils, but within the right range, a water-glycol solution is an excellent choice. Additionally, glycol heaters are valuable due to the safe heat transfer that they provide. For example, it can be dangerous to have heating elements near the process or materials, but using a glycol heating system keeps the heat source safely away from the process. Thermal oils are also a fire hazard if there is a system leak, while glycol solutions are not flammable.
Using Glycol in Industrial Heating System Applications
Ethylene and propylene glycol are commonly used in industrial facilities for process cooling. However, they are also used in process heating systems. They are very effective in heating applications due to several properties, such as:
High specific heat capacity
High thermal conductivity
Low viscosity
Water miscibility
Water and glycol solutions present many benefits for industrial processes, on the other hand, these are not the only heat transfer mediums available. Synthetic and organic thermal oils are also sometimes selected as they work well in temperatures up to 750° F and produce very little vapor pressure. Water without additives can also be used, although within more limited conditions due to its low-temperature intolerance and boiling point. It is also possible for water to produce a dangerous amount of vapor pressure at certain temperatures.
A water and glycol mixture can be a preferable choice in many applications since it has a higher boiling point than water alone, which can be increased further by including a higher concentration of glycol. Different types of glycol can be used for varying operating temperatures. For example, while ethylene and propylene glycol are suitable for systems with temperatures between 250–300° F, Tri-ethylene glycol works effectively up to 350° F.
Glycol Heaters from Sigma Thermal
Sigma Thermal’s glycol heaters, such as HC-2 heaters, are designed to meet all area classifications and can perform optimally in even the harshest of environments, including deserts, arctic, and offshore regions. The HC-2 thermal fluid heater is available in capacities from 1 to 100MM Btu/hr, with custom sizes also available. The heater shell is externally insulated using mineral wool insulation which is covered in aluminum cladding.
Some other design features of glycol heaters from Sigma Thermal include advanced control system options and a double-helical coil design, which offers three passes of flue gas along a conservatively designed coil surface area. Depending on process inlet temperatures, base efficiencies can exceed 88%, and by including an optional economizer, can exceed 93% (LHV basis).
These systems allow flue gases to be cooled significantly, which eliminates the need for most internal shell insulation. Sigma Thermal carries low emissions burners that meet all emissions requirements in standard or engineered burner configurations that can be used with either traditional or alternative fuel sources.
Sigma Thermal offers customizable glycol heaters that lower fuel and operation costs while improving efficiency. To learn more about our products, please contact us or request a quote to get started.
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How Does a Biomass System Work?
