Continuing Education – Evening Lecture
Electric Heaters: Fouling, Feeders, Vaporization, PSVs and More
Presenter: Dennis Dever, Ph.D., P.E.
Principal
Dever Technology, LLC
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
5:30pm-6:30pm – Presentation (Eastern time)
6:30pm-6:45pm – Q&A Session & Closing Remarks
PDH Credit: 1 credit
Location: This will be an online presentation only.
Price:
$10 each for all attendees
Abstract:
There is a large increase in effort and funding for process electric heaters throughout the world because of new renewable energy sources of electric power. Chemical Engineers are often not familiar with either the simple or sophisticated issues associated with electric heaters. This presentation will introduce engineers to these issues.
Eight of the different available electric heater technologies will be briefly listed. The advantages and disadvantages of electric heaters will be described and the challenges regarding very high temperature electric heaters will be summarized. The fundamental issues surrounding constant temperature heat transfer and constant flux heat transfer as it relates to turbulent convection and fluid eddies will be explained.
Design calculations unique to electric heat applications will be presented:
- The results of a numerical study will be provided to demonstrate the problem of fouling with electric heater heat transfer and how a radiation-based design can reduce this problem.
- The importance and challenges of penetrating a pressure boundary with electric power feeds will be explained. The results of an additional numerical heat transfer study for one common feeder design will be presented.
- As an example of how direct electric heat differs from a steam heated exchanger, a comparison using vaporization will be given.
- The pressure relief calculation for a blocked pressure vessel with electric heat cannot be found in codes and common manuals. A method will be provided and explained for a blocked electric heater with a single-phase fluid.
Electric heater circuits and the associated tolerances will be explained since Chemical Engineers who specify electric heaters need to understand some of these basics. Important ohmic resistor materials will be listed with some characteristics important for their suitability in various applications. The control of electric heater duty using SCRs, SSRs, and contactors will be presented. Changes and opportunities in the industry include improved radiant heat transfer software, improved fouling tolerance, ultra-high temperature materials, and electric steam heaters and superheaters.
Biography:
Dennis Dever is a licensed Engineer with a PhD from Drexel University and Bachelor of Science from the University of Delaware in Chemical Engineering. He has developed and utilized design methods for electric radiant heaters, electric immersion heaters, electric impedance heaters , and high temperature electrically heated reactors from R&D to commercialization. He has led the design, procurement, and commissioning of process plants from flow diagrams to start-up with several disciplines. This has included emergency re-supply of ethylene vaporization plants and crystallizer based chemical separation plants for p-Xylene, Caprolactam, Acrylic Acid, and Acetic Acid. He invented a Super Critical Mixer which prevents pipe wall rupture due to the thermal cycling of turbulent eddies. He has written finite element software and executed numerical calculations for multiple types of diffusion, heat transfer, kinetics, and ionic conduction. Dennis has led technical committees at Heat Transfer Research and the Chlorine Institute. He is currently writing the new electric heater chapter in the “Heat Exchanger Design Handbook” or HEDH.
Registration:
Please register no later than Tuesday, June 18 2024 at 12 noon. Cancellation requests received by the registration deadline will be fully refunded.
Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Cynthia Tarun at tarun.aichedvs@gmail.com, 832-341-4960 (Mobile).