Case Studies

Direct Fired Stainless Steel Refractoryless Air Heater

$Replacement refractoryless air heater in a horizontal configuration$

Vertical configuration includes custom designed support system

Problem: Traditional refractory-lined air heaters were expensive to maintain and rebuild.

Solution: I.C.E. proposed developing an industrial stainless steel refractoryless air heater system, fueled by natural gas. The system could also operate on #2 fuel oil or propane as emergency standby energy sources. This would eliminate the problems caused by the heavy refractory linings.

Result: The Direct Fired Stainless Steel Refractoryless Air Heater design provided the following advantages:

Low initial cost (generally less than replacing the old refractory lining);
Faster heat ups and cool downs;
Less weight, more installation flexibility (horizontal or vertical); and
Custom designed support systems for any customer plant location.

Direct Fired Air Heater

Model 3000V Direct Fired Industrial Air Heater with advanced control system

Advanced control system with typical operating program

Problem: Customers of the railroad lining industry must now meet the documentation requirements of both the tank's temperature and time at multiple locations on the same tank car.

Solution: I.C.E. developed a system that monitors many locations on multiple tank cars and controls from multiple points to assure uniform and complete curing of the tank car's lining. Using I.C.E.'s industrial Direct Fired Air Heaters, two to four cars can be monitored from the same air heater versus the original one to two cars.

Result: The temperature control and monitoring system has the following advantages:

Twice the number of railroad tank cars can now be processed per system;
Documentation is electronically saved and can be downloaded to a spreadsheet program; and
Additional requirements are easily incorporated (end of cycle alarms, high alarms, out of range lights, etc.).

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