Research and Application of the Natural Gas Heater

The natural gas heater is an indispensable piece of equipment in natural gas production, transmission, and application systems and is widely used in gas wellhead, metering station, transfer station and gas power plant etc. As a special type of furnace, the natural gas heater adopts indirect heating through heat-transfer medium and is the important energy consumption equipment in natural gas industry. At a time when there is serious shortage of energy and energy-saving and efficiency enhancement is highly valued, more attention should be paid to how to improve the structure of the heater so as to reduce fuel consumption and protect the environment. The progresses achieved in the field of natural gas heater design were discussed. Especially for the weak point of not forming an effective heat transfer flow field in the large cylinder of natural gas heater, two effective optimizing arrangements of rotating the heating and cooling surfaces and setting baffles between the heating surfaces and cooling surfaces were brought forward to help the heat-transfer medium form a well-organized flow. As a result, the thermal efficiency of natural gas heater is improved, energy saved, and the consumption reduced. The above two technologies have been awarded patents in the People’s Republic of China.