Boilers to Heat Bitumen Product Storage Tanks
The temperature of the storage tanks needs to be sufficiently high to ensure that the bitumen product can still be pumped when it reaches the customer. If the bitumen temperature drops too low it becomes difficult to pump. An accurate and reliable heat source is therefore essential.
Eastham Refinery Ltd is located on the Wirral, Merseyside and is the largest producer of bitumen in the United Kingdom with a capacity of 800,000 tonnes of bitumen per year. Eastham Refinery is a joint venture between Shell UK Limited and AB Nynas Petroleum.
Two Babcock Wanson EPC ES natural gas fired Thermal Fluid Heaters with control systems incorporating O2 and CO trim to further improve efficiency, have been installed at Eastham Refinery in an enclosure that they provided. They have replaced the existing direct oil fired furnaces on site which were old and inefficient. Douglas Watt, Senior Process Engineer and the Project Manager, explains the company’s decision: “ERL considered converting to gas firing on the original heaters. This would have required significant investment to update the equipment and to bring the control/instrumentation up to modern standards. A packaged heater solution was more cost effective.”
Using the Babcock Wanson Experience
The Babcock Wanson EPC ES is a fully automatic coil type, multi-pass Thermal Fluid Heater which provides a high efficiency solution to a very energy intensive process. It provides optimal distribution of the heat, high fluid velocity in the exchange tubes and continuous flow monitoring to ensure long fluid life and the highest level of safety. The EPC Heater precisely matches fuel input to plant energy requirements and incorporates an in-built exhaust gas to combustion air economiser for highest practicable operating efficiency. With lower energy input demand comes lower total exhaust emissions, so there are also environmental benefits.
Eastham Refinery Limited has been pleased with the results: “The heaters have met our expectation and are straightforward to operate. They have resulted in a significant reduction in fuel cost over our previous oil fired heaters” states Douglas. The service they have received from Babcock Wanson has also been positive: “The service has been good; the startup and commissioning engineer was very professional.”
Babcock Wanson has extensive experience of working with bulk liquid storage and logistics companies – including Nynas and Shell who operate Eastham Refinery as a joint venture - and has gained an excellent reputation in the industry for its reliable, cost-effective heaters and excellent service.
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