Electric Circulation Heater

Overview

Electric Circulation Heaters are typically electric heaters that are design for single or multi pass application such as Hot Oil Heating and Water Calorifiers. The media that is being heater (typically liquid) is constantly circulated over the electric heater elements in a close loop system.  Heat transfer is the circulation mode is mainly by force convection and conduction.

Application

In a Hot Oil System, the electric heater is located downstream of a pump which circulates the hot oil over the heating element. As the hot oil travels over the heater, it picks up the heat from the heater element. This heated oil is then routed to a user such as a die pelletizer in the plastic industry. In the pelletizer, the heater oil is used to heat up the plastic in the forming process. The used oil is then returned to the pump where the starts another cycle.

Another common application of an electric circulation heater is as a water heater (calorifier).  It is common to install an electric circulation heater a safety shower system in a plant to keep the water from freezing. This water is circulated over the heater element to keep the water above freezing point.

Capabilities

Heating up water may seem like an elementary application. We have seen many heaters that suffer from crevice corrosion in the water service due to incorrect material selection. As a standard, EML heater bundles use Incoloy 800 materials. In some instances, however, corrosion resistant material such as Incoloy 800 may not provide satisfactory service, so higher alloys may be used. Give us a call so we may help you solve your problems.