INDUSTRIAL WATER HEATING
Industrial heating requires basically a lot of Two main methods are utilized to provide large scale hot waters fr industrial use. These are namely the indirect heaters and the injection heaters. Let us compare the two.
INDIRECT HEATERS:
These are water heaters in which water is not heated directly. Fluids like steam, hot water or refrigerants are heated in separate heaters and this heat energy is transferred to the water in the supply system.
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Any method may be used to heat the heating medium. Usually boilers are employed to generate hot water or steam required for the process.
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Devices like heat exchangers make this heat transfer possible. Tubes containing the system water are passed through a shell containing the heating medium and the heat transfer occurs through the walls of the tubes. Thus we obtain hot water which can be stored in tanks and utilized later.
BLENDING INJECTION:
A great rival to the above indirect heaters is the injection heater. The principle of this heater involves injecting the heating medium ( mainly steam ) into the cold water and mixing this to provide hot water at optimal temperature.
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At the supply point, two pipelines are available, one containing the heating medium and the other containing the heating medium. A calibrated regulator with a sensitive thermostat ensures that the hot water temperature matches the set point.
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Since steam is directly injected into the hot water rather than transferring the heat through tube walls, injection heaters are almost 30% more efficient than indirect heaters.
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Injection heaters require heating water and storing it, and hence very large volumes of hot water cannot be produced. In the latter, hot water can be produced indefinitely.
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Accuracy in hot water temperature is much better in the latter as the heat transfer is instantaneous and thus it offers better temperature control.