Fired Heaters

A primer on
Fired Heaters

Heater B110-B, at India Glycols Ltd, Kashipur

By Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd.

Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd.

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Contents

Fired Heaters iii

Basic Components iv

Burners x

Dampers xii

Efficiency xiv

Increasing Thermal Efficiency xv

Air Preheat System xvii

Environmental Considerations xx

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 Fired Heaters
What is a fired heater?
A fired heater is equipment in which heat liberated by combustion of fuel within an
internally insulated vessel is transferred to fluid contained in tubular coils. Typically,
the tubular heating elements are installed along the walls and roof of the combustion
chamber where heat is transferred primarily by radiation, and if economically
justifiable, in a separate tube bank, where heat transfer is accomplished mainly by
convection. The fundamental function of a fire heater is to supply a specified quantity
of heat at elevated temperature levels to the fluid being heated. It must be able to do
so without localized overheating of the fluid or of the structural components.

Fired-Heater size is defined in terms of its design heat-absorption capability, or duty.

Duties range from about a half-million Btu/h for small, specialty units to about one
billion Btu/h, for super project facilities such as the mammoth crude oil heating
furnaces of refineries.

Types of Fired Heaters

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 Basic Components

A fired heater consists of many components. The major components are shown
here. Apart from these, the heater is also equipped with instruments, doors,
pressure gauges, soot blowers, fans, and many other accessories.
The models shown here are simplified versions of the actual fired heaters and may
lack many details for clarity.

1 5

6
2

Double radiant box heater.

For visibility of internals, radiant shell is
shown transparent here. 8

Labels
1. Convection box
2. Convection coil
3. Radiant box
4. Radiant coil
5. Stack
6. Structure
7. Foundations
8. Access door

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

13 12
5

10

14

Radiant-only box heater.

11

Labels
9. Stairs and ladders
10. Platform
11. Peep doors
12. Duct
13. Shutoff plate opening
14. Safety Railing

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued
1. Convection box
This is an insulated enclosure in which convection coils are housed. In this area the
heat transfer to the fluid is mainly by convection. The convection box is designed to
provide maximum wetted surface area for the convection coils. For this purpose it
may also be provided with protrusions along its walls called corbels.
Convection box is generally placed above the radiant box so that the heat of the
gasses leaving the radiant section can be utilized.

View from left side SW Isometric view

Some old heaters may be only-radiant heaters i.e. they don’t have a convection
section. But a fired heater cannot be convection-only heater as heat transfer by
convection is very less than that by radiation for the similar working conditions.

2. Convection Coil
The convection coil is a series of tubes (generally
horizontal) connected at ends with 180° bends. The
convection coil is so designed that is may see a large
amount of the gas rising from the radiant section. As the
heat transfer by convection is propotional to the contact
surface area, these tubes are placed close and may be
finned or studded. Bare tube rows are provided between
the convection section and the radiant section and are
called shock tubes, minimum two shock
tube rows must be provided, sometimes
designers even provide three rows.

The convection coils are housed in the

convection box but the bends are housed
in header boxes.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

The fluid to which heat is to be transferred is first

passed through the convection coils and then through
the radiant coils. These coils may sometimes gather
soot if heavy fuel oils are used. Certain specifications
require the installation of soot blowers to periodically
blow away the soot formed in the tubes. Maximum eight
rows of tubes should have atleast one row of soot
blowers. Finned or studded tubes yield much better
Corroded studded tubes.
results than bare tubes as these have more surface
area. These tubes are more efficient but their initial cost
is more and they need more maintenance.

3. Radiant box
This is the major part of any fired heater. It is basically a
cylindrical or box type enclosure. The shell is lined on the
insides with insulation refractory material to minimize heat loss
from the enclosure. The temperature inside the radiant box
may be as high as 1500°C and the max temperature allowed
on outside wall of radiant section is 80°C this temperature drop
is due to insulation refractory. The radiant box has provisions
to install the radiant coils, the burners and other accessories. It
also has openings for peep doors, access doors and also
openings for tube installation and removal. Radiant shell of a typical heater

4. Radiant Coil
This is a series of tubes horizontal/ vertical hairpin type
connected at ends (with 180° bends) or helical in construction.
The radiant coil absorbs heat through radiation. They can be
single pass or multi pass depending upon the process-side
pressure drop allowed. The radiant coils and bends are housed
in the radiant box. Radiant coil materials vary from carbon steel
for low temperature services to high alloy steels
for high temperature services. These are
supported from the radiant side walls or hanging
from the radiant roof. Material of these supports
is generally high alloy steel. While designing the
radiant coil, care is taken so that provision for
Cast bracket support expansion (in hot conditions) is kept.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

5. Stack
A stack is basically a long vertical duct that is used to allow the safe
removal of flue gasses from the fired heater. The stack height is largely
determined by the draft requirements of the fired heater. Environmental
considerations require the stacks to be of at least a basic minimum
height which is specified in the regional specifications. The stack is
designed to withstand wind loads and also to withstand continued
vibrations. Mostly stacks are provided with helical wind breakers that
help breaking any vortex formation in the air flowing around the stack.
They are also provided with dampers. Stacks with smaller height
normally have a canopy provided which will restrict water entry into the
furnace during rains. Tall stacks normally do not require canopy as the
water entering top of the stack will evaporate causing no damage to the
Erection of stack.
fired heater. Stacks are lined with approx 2’’ thick insulating castable.

6. Structure
The heater’s structural steel framework provides
load-carrying members, which permit lateral and
vertical expansion of all parts of the fired heater. The
members may be of various sections line C, H, L, etc.
The framework also supports the tube coil,
independently of the refractory. When appurtenances
such as ladders and platforms are provided or
anticipated, the structural design must be adjusted to
carry such loads. The structure is designed to
withstand various kinds of loads including dead, live
weights, wind loads and even seismic loads.

7. Foundations
Concrete pillars are foundation on which the heater is mounted. They can be four
nos. for smaller heaters and may be upto 24 nos. for large size heaters. Design of
pillars and entire foundation is done based on the load bearing capacity of soil and
seismic conditions prevailing in the area. Foundation bolts are grouted in foundation
after installation of the heater.

8. Access Doors
The heater body is provided with access doors at various locations. Access doors
are to be used only during shutdown of heater. The normal size of the access door is
600x400 mm, which is sufficient for movement of men/ material into and out of the
heater. During operation the access doors are properly bolted using leak proof high
temperature gaskets.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

9. Stairs and ladders

To reach a higher platform from a lower one, stairs/ caged ladders are
provided on the outside of a heater. Generally caged ladders are provided
only to be used during emergencies. For normal use stairs with galvanized
gratings are used. In case of taller ladders safety cage is provided leaving
1.7m at entry point.

10. Platforms
A fired heater is provided with a number of platforms for accessing various
controls, instruments, peep doors, etc. on the heater casing. The platforms
are designed according to well defined standards and are required to have
hand rails, toe rails and knee rails at all open sides. Platforms also have a
toe rail which may be on the inside edge also if the platform is placed at a
distance from the heater body.

11. Peep doors

These are small openings in the heater casing that allow a person to peep inside the
heater when in operation to visually assess condition of any hotspot on the coil,
shape of the flame and flame height etc. Certain peep holes have safety glass
provided. Peep doors are also known as inspection doors. The opening size of
inspection doors is normally 150x100 mm. They are provided with insulated cover for
safety. Leakage or air through the peep doors to radiant box is kept bare minimum
so that NOx levels are kept maintained on the lower side.

12. Duct
Ducts are used to transfer gasses from one chamber to
another. These are used in almost all kinds of heaters.
Duct design requires a high degree of engineering
knowledge and is a key element in the working of a fired
heater. CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) software is
used to analyse the flow patterns of flue gas in ducts.
Ducts are normally lined internally with insulation castable.

13. Shut off plate

The flow of the flue gasses may be shut off from individual ducts using shut off
plates. These plates are used for positive isolation of flue gas paths that are not
needed or are used for some specific purposes only.

14. Safety railing

A railing is required to be placed at all places of a heater from where a person may
fall. All platforms are provided with hand, toe and knee rails on all open sides even
the entry and exit points of ladders will have safety bars/ chains.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 Burners

What is a Burner?
Burner is equipment used to bring together air and fuel in the required quantities and
ignite the mixture at the required rate.

The fundamental criteria for selecting a burner include:

a) The ability to handle fuels having a reasonable variation in calorific value.
b) Provision for safe ignition and easy maintenance.
c) A reasonable turndown ratio between maximum and minimum firing rates.
d) Predictable flame patterns for all fuels and firing rates.

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 …continued

Gas Fired Burners

Burners designed for gaseous fuel only are classified into two
basic categories:
a) Premix inspiriting
The premix burner relies on the kinetic energy made
available by the expansion of the fuel gas through an
orifice to inspirate and mix combustion air prior to ignition
at the burner tip. Approximately 50 – 60% of the
combustion air is inspirated as primary air into the burner
ahead of the ignition point.

Some of the advantages of this type of burner are:

• Operating flexibility is good over a range of conditions. The amount of air
inspirated varies with the fuel-gas. Pressure, and consequently requires only
limited adjustment of secondary (non-inspirated) combustion air. Premix
burners can operate at low excess air rates and are not significantly affected
by changes in wind velocity and direction.
• Flame length is short and flame pattern sharply defined at high release rates.
• Burner orifices or spuds are fairly large and, since they are located in a cold
zone, are less subject to plugging than the smaller openings on non-
inspirating gas burners.

Some of the disadvantages of inspirating burners are:

• Relatively high gas pressures must be available.
• Flash back of the flame from the burner tip to the mixing orifice may occur at
low gas pressures, or when the fraction of gases having high flame
propagation velocities, such as hydrogen, becomes too high.
• The noise level of premix inspirating burners is higher than that of non-
inspirating types.

b) Raw gas burning

The nozzle mixing, raw gas burner received fuel gas from the gas manifold
without any premixing of combustion air. The gas is then burned at a tip equipped
with a series of small ports.

Some advantages of this type of burner are:

• It has the greatest available turndown ratio for any given combustion
condition.
• It can operate on very low gas pressure on a wide variety of fuels and without
flash back.
• Noise level is reasonably low.

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 …continued

Some of the disadvantages of raw gas burners are:

• Flexibility is limited over its wide turndown range. Because no primary air is
inspirated, combustion air adjustments must be made over the full operating
range of the burner.
• The drilling of the burner ports is very sensitive, any enlargement of the port
opening will generally result in unsatisfactory flame conditions.
• Flames tend to lengthen, and flame conditions become unsatisfactory as the
burner is pushed beyond its design level.
• The gas orifices or burner ports are exposed to the hot zone and are subject
to plugging at low velocity and high temperature.

Oil Fired Burners

Special measures must be provided for burning fuel oil, since
mixing of fuel and combustion air occurs in the gaseous
phase. To accomplish this, all liquid fuel burners use
atomizing devices to break up the liquid mass into micron size
droplets. This increases the surface to mass ratio, thereby
allowing extremely rapid heating and vaporization of the oil
mass. Oil burners in fired heaters almost always utilize steam
as the atomizing medium. Such burners are designed with a
double pipe in the feed tube to inject the steam and oil
separately in a mixing chamber or atomizer immediately
ahead of the burner tip. Steam pressure is slightly higher the
oil pressure upon entering the atomizer, where the steam
mixes with the oil due to the shearing action. Furthermore, oil in contact with hot
water vapour tends to form or emulsify, thus contributing to the atomizing process.
The steam and the finally dispersed oil then issue through a series of orifices into the
turbulent air stream.
For proper combustion of oil, the following requirements should be met:
• The oil must be heated high enough that its viscosity is not greater than 150 –
200 Ssu.
• Oil pressure must be held constant, typically at about 75psig.
• The steam delivered at the burner must be absolutely dry. If available, a
moderate superheat of approx. 50°F.

Combination Oil & Gas Burners

Combination burners are designed to burn all-oil, all-gas, or any combination of oil
and gas simultaneously. Typically these burners feature a double block design in
which a single oil gun is arranged in an array of gas nozzles. Gas firing in the newer
combination burners is almost always accomplished with raw gas nozzles.

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 Dampers

The function of the stack damper is to control the heater’s draft by maintaining a
negative pressure of approx. 0.05 H2O in the region directly below the convection
section. The damper adjusts as necessary to maintain this necessary pressure.

Stack dampers of single leaf construction are used for small diameter stacks and
multi-leaf construction for large diameter stacks. In rectangular duct work, which
carries the flue gases between heater and a separator stack, louvere type dampers
are normally used.

Stack dampers are usually manually operated from grade by means of cables. In the
case of large dampers it is now fairly common to maneuvers them with pneumatic
operators.

Various types of dampers

Butterfly damper Duct damper Guillotine damper

Stack damper Louvre damper Stack damper

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 Efficiency

Thermal Efficiency
While calculating the thermal efficiency, the total heat input to the heater is
considered irrespective of the source of the heat.
ηTh = Total heat absorbed
Total heat input
Fuel Efficiency
For calculating the fuel efficiency, only the heat input due to combustion is
considered.
ηFuel = Total heat absorbed
Total heat input from combustion (LHV)

• Total heat absorbed = Total heat input – Total heat losses

• Total heat input = Sum of net heat of combustion (LHV) & the sensible
heat of air, fuel and atomizing medium to the system.
• Total heat losses = Sum of Radiation heat loss & Stack heat loss.
• Stack heat loss = Total sensible heat of the flue gas components at the
temperature of the flue gas when it leaves the last heat exchange surface.

Net Thermal Efficiency

η= Total heat absorbed
Total heat input

η= Total heat input – Total heat losses

Total heat input

η= (LHV + Ha + Hf + Hm) – (Qr + Qs)

LHV + Ha + Hf + Hm

• Ha = Cp x (Tt – Td) x pounds of air/ pounds of fuel

• Tt = air temperature
• Td = design datum temperature
• Hf = Cp fuel x (Tf – Td)
• Hm = Cp medium x (Tm – Td)
• Qr = assumed radiation heat loss
• Qs = calculated stack heat loss

Gross Thermal efficiency

ηgross = (HHV + Ha + Hf + Hm) – (Qr + Qs + H2O formed x 1059.7)
HHV + Ha + Hf + Hm
• HHV = LHV + H2O formed x 1059.7

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 Increasing Thermal Efficiency

The following are the methods that have proved successful in raising the thermal
efficiency of fired heaters:

Reduction of excess air

In existing installations, excess air is the most important combustion variable
affection the thermal efficiency of a fired heater. Although heater operation is easier
to control at high excess-air levels, it is very costly. The higher the excess air, the
greater is the fuel consumption for a given heat absorption. The extra fuel is
consumed in heating the excess air volume from ambient temperature to the
temperature of the exiting flue gases.

In order to exercise greater control over excess air, the oxygen content of the flue
gas should be monitored above the combustion zone. Often, excess air in the
combustion section may run as low as 10 – 15%, but stack-gas analysis reveals an
oxygen content equivalent to as much as 100% excess air. This differential results
from air leakage into the heater that occurs between the combustion zone and the
stack. Such leakage cannot be corrected by burner adjustments.

Air leakage into a heater can occur at many locations. One route of entry is through
the seams of the steel casing, between adjacent plates and stiffening members. Air
can also enter through distorted or poorly gasketed header boxes. The terminal
tubes in the tube coil, where they enter and leave the heater casing, can likewise be
a source of air leakage.

Further recovery of convection heat

The potential of additional heat recovery in the convection section exists when the
heater operates at a relatively high flue gas temperature. First consideration should
be given to augmenting the convection section surface area by adding several rows
of convection tubes in the same heating service.

Occasionally, flue gases from several fired heaters are routed to a central waste heat
recovery facility. Typically the recovered heat is utilized for steam generation. It
should be noted that the additional convection section heat recovery will result in a
lower stack gas temperature thereby reducing the stack draft. In addition the
installation of more surface area will increase the flue gas pressure drop. Therefore it
is imperative that the effect of any alterations on the stack draft be analysed
beforehand in order to determine whether additional stack height would be required.

Replace bare tubes with extended surface

Many older generation fired heaters are equipped with bare tube convection sections
and operate with high flue gas temperatures at 65 – 70% thermal efficiency. By
replacing the bare tubes with extended surface tubes, efficiency improvement in the
neighbourhood of 10% may be realized.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

The most economical conversion from bare to extended surface tubes can be made
from the reduction in tube size is such that the tip - to - tip diameter across the
extended surface tube is the same as the outside diameter of the original bare tube.
On this basis it is very likely that the existing convection tube sheets can be retained.
However, the reduction in tube I.D. will result in higher fuel pressure drops unless an
increase in the number of convection section parallel passes can be tolerated.
Conversely if the same tube I.D. is maintained, the conversion from bare to extended
surface will necessitate the replacement of the convection section tube sheets – with
accompanying downtime and expense.

Pre-heat the combustion air

Fuel consumption in the fired heater can be markedly reduced by pre-heating the
combustion air. In the pre-heater, heat is transferred from the flue gas to the
combustion air, reducing the exit temperature of the flue gas and raising the thermal
efficiency. With air pre-heat system, exit flue gas temperatures often range in the
300 – 350oF range and efficiency levels commonly reach 90 – 92% (LHV).

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 Air PreHeat System

Air Pre-heat systems (APH) are used to heat the air before it enters the heater. The
heating of the air may be done through an external heat source or, using the flue gas
exiting from the convection section. With such systems, the attainable thermal
efficiency is no longer controlled by the approach between the flue gas and the inlet
fluid temperatures.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

APH systems may be classified as:

Recuperative type APH

These devices, typically of tubular construction, transfer
heat by convection from flue gas to combustion air.
Customarily, the air flows inside the tubes, whereas the flue
gas flows across the tube bundle. The APH can be installed
in the fired heater above the process convection section or,
as is more usually the case, at grade alongside the heater.
Such systems may employ a forced draft (F.D.) fan to
supply combustion air and induced draft (I.D.) fan to
maintain a negative pressure and draw the flue gas through
the system to the stack. A cold air bypass enables the
operator to route a portion of the incoming combustion air
around the pre-heater when ambient temperature is very
low.

Regenerative type APH

This apparatus consists of heat transfer elements housed in a sub-divided cylinder,
which rotates in a casing. Hot flue gases pass through one side of the cylinder, cold
air through the other side. As the cylinder slowly rotates, the elements continuously
absorb heat from the flue gas and release it to the incoming air stream. The cylinder
is sub-divided by baffles which, like the seals between the cylinder and the casing
help to minimize leakage of air into the flue gas stream.

Heat medium APH

Instead of direct heat exchange between air and flue gas, these units employ and
intermediate fluid to transfer heat from the flue gas to the incoming combustion air.
The heat medium is contained in a closed loop that includes a re-heat coil in the flue
gas flow downstream of the process convection coil, and a pre-heat coil positioned in
the air stream. The circulating fluid extracts heat from the flue gas, lowering the gas
temperature and raising the flue temperature. In turn, the hot fluid releases its heat to
the incoming air.

Process fluid APH

These systems take off a portion of the process stream entering the convection
section and send it to a pre-heat coil in the air stream which warms the air. The sub-
cooled process-fluid is then returned to a re-heat coil located in the flue gas flow
downstream of the main process convection coil, which re-heats the fluid to its
original temperature level and returns it to the main process stream ahead of the
convection coil.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

 …continued

Process effects of Air Pre-heating

Fired heater operation with pre-heater combustion air results in higher adiabatic
flame temperatures than with ambient air. From the combustion kinetics, then, one
might expect heaters using pre-heated air to generate higher amounts of NOx than
those using ambient air.

However, nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere is usually a relatively a minor factor
in NOx production. The Nitrogen which most readily converts to NOx is that which is
chemically bound up in the fuel. The quantity of oxides of Nitrogen formed from this
souce is no appreciably affected by elevated combustion temperatures. In fact,
within APH, the reduction in the amount of fuel consumed corresponds directly to a
reduction in the amount of NOx formed from fuel bound Nitrogen.

Another process effect that manifests itself when an APH system is retrofitted to an
existing heater is the shift in duty split between the radiant and convection sections.
The higher combustion temperatures due to pre-heating coupled with the lower
convection transfer rate at reduced flue gas flow rates causes a greater proportion of
total heat absorption to take place in the radiant section.

Advantages
• Reduced fuel consumption
• Improved control of combustion air flow
• Reduced burner oil fouling
• Better flame pattern control
• More complete combustion of difficult fuels

Disadvantages
• Increased radiant section operating temperature
• Increased potential for corrosion of flue gas wetted components downstream
of pre-heat exchanger from sulphuric acid condensation.
• Formation of acid mists, resulting in stack plume, if fuel sulphur is high.
• Increased maintenance.
• Reduced stack effluent velocity and dispersion of flue gases.

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.

Environmental Considerations

Stack emissions
Use of APH will lower flue gas exit temperature, this increases the possibility of
exhaust stack plume and/ or acid rain.

Sulphur oxides
Depends solely on the gas or the oil burned and is not affected by the APH but as
fuel consumption is reduced by the APH, so it results in less Sulphur oxides’
formation.

Nitrogen oxides
Depend upon the time, temperature and the O2 concentration of any specific fuel’s
combustion process.
• NOx increases with increase in fire box or combustion temperature.
• NOx decreases with decrease in excess air.
• Pre-heating combustion air increases NOx, but if efficiency is increased then
the relative NOx is reduced.
• A reduction in excess air results in much lower levels of NOx (in forced draft
systems the excess air is much less than that in natural draft systems).

Particulates
Emission of particulates is a function of burner application and the specific fuel
burned. Use of APH reduces total solid emissions.

Combustibles
These are emitted due to unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide formation.
Use of APH enables complete combustion at lowest possible excess air levels.

Noise
The main source of noise in a fired heater is the burners and fans. Not much can be
done to reduce combustion noise but it is possible to minimize propagation of sound
to the outside of heater.

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Please contact:

Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd.

B-39, Sector-67, Noida, UP – 201301
India

Ph.: 0120 6491904/ 05/ 06

Email: [email protected]

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Esteem Projects Pvt. Ltd. the Fired Heater Company.