Gerxnany is not only long on words, but also short on fuel; it has no cheap domestic sources of fuel other than coal, and that is getting expensive, too. The Germans have therefore been interested in high efficiencies of heaters in refineries and other installations for some time. Often only 30% of the heat from burning fuels is conveyed to the convection tubes carrying water or other liquids, the remaining 70% going out the stack together with pollutants. Such tubes are fouled by flue gas, collecting soot and other particulates which cause partial thermal insulation and thus loss of heating efficiency. The tubes are often cleaned by jets of steam, which do not, however, reach the entire surface of the tubes effectively, and the thermal stress can damage the tubes, or a slug of condensate can hit a tube and rupture it. In either case the heater must be shut down for repairs.
Now VEBA Chemie's large refinery in the Ruhr area of Germany has come up with a new system of cleaning the convection tubes. Since it was installed in 1971, there has been no fouling of the convection section, and no repairs have been necessary; and the efficiency of the 200 million BTU heater is a highly respectable 83%.
Elektronik? Physikalische Chemie?
Nein, much simpler. The long word in the headline literally translates as ball rain cleaning, and means scrubbing by a shower of pellets. The system is turned on each shift for 10 minutes, during which a shower of about 450 lb of steel balls, 1/8 to l/4 inch in diameter, is bounced offa hemispherical scatterer for uniform distribution to hit the tubes and knock them clean.
For details of the system, see the Oil and Gas Journal of October 22. (Apart from that, how about a little conjugation? Ich kugelregenreinige, du kugelregenreinigst, . . . wir haben kugelregengereinigt )
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Vol. 1, No. 3
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 1 Issue/No.: Vol. 1, No. 3 Date: November 01, 1973 11:32 AM (For actual publication date see newsletter.) Title: Arab Oil: The Big Fallacy
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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