Comparison between explosion-proof electric heater and steam tracing

As an effective pipeline heat tracing and pipeline antifreezing scheme, explosion-proof electric heater has been widely used in thermal power plants. Its working principle is to release a certain amount of heat through the heat tracing medium, and supplement the heat loss of the heat tracing pipeline through direct or indirect heat exchange to meet the normal working requirements of temperature rise, thermal insulation or antifreeze. In the past, steam heat tracing has been the main heat tracing and insulation method for most thermal power plants. Its working principle is to dissipate heat through steam heat tracing pipe to supplement the heat loss of heat insulation pipe. Because the heat dissipation of steam is difficult to control, its heat insulation efficiency is always at a low level. In addition, the pipes that need heat tracing in power plants are generally instrument pipes, process pipes and chemical pipes, which are relatively complex, and it is very inconvenient to lay steam heat tracing pipes. In addition, during winter operation, the phenomenon of "running, emitting, dripping and leaking" often occurs in the steam tracing pipeline. Every winter, the maintenance department of the power plant will spend a lot of manpower and material resources on pipe heat tracing and insulation to ensure the safety of the operation of the power plant in winter.
In the application of thermal insulation and antifreezing in thermal power plants, electric heat tracing technology has been highly evaluated and recognized for its high heating efficiency, simple installation, reliable quality, long service life and other advantages. However, the one-time investment of adopting explosion-proof electric heat tracing technology is higher than that of steam heat tracing scheme, which is one of the main obstacles for Chinese power plants to adopt explosion-proof electric heat tracing technology. From the perspective of economic investment, the one-time investment of electric heat tracing device is relatively expensive, but from the perspective of long-term use time, operation cost, environmental protection and energy conservation, electric heat tracing is much cheaper than pure steam heat tracing.
Comparison of benefits between the two:
Explosion-proof electric heater is a comprehensive and three-dimensional antifreezing and thermal insulation method, but steam tracing can only use part of the heat energy, and a large amount of heat energy has changed from high efficiency to low efficiency, which can not be used and wasted in vain. According to the calculation of foreign professional heat tracing product companies, the energy consumption ratio of electric heat tracing and steam heat tracing is 1:5.8. In addition, since the electric heating belt uses clean energy, it does not produce any industrial toxic and harmful substances, nor does it produce industrial three wastes. It can also effectively eliminate the phenomenon of escape, emission, dripping and leakage. This is a good way to improve the production environment and easily improve the surrounding environment. In addition, the cost of electric heat tracing is also lower than that of steam heat tracing in terms of installation and maintenance. Electric heat tracing has become a new type of heat preservation and tracing mode pursued by more and more users and industrial manufacturers.