Instrument Gas Heating - Heat Pipe? 1

[CSmith]

Hello,

I'm designing an instrument gas system for a natural gas metering station. Its in a remote Australian location and requires gas to actuate some valves. The supply pipeline operates at up to 12,000 kPa and the instrument gas is typically 800 kPa so there's lots of JT cooling but a very low flow rate.

The client is keen on a "Heat Pipe" system to help use ambient heat recovery. I'm familiar with the concept, but have never seen it used on instrument gas supplies. I've looked at normal ambient heat recovery (min ambient is 3°C), ground heat recovery (14°C) and heat tracing.

The client is keen to show how clever he is though. Has anyone used a heat pipe system on instrument gas? If so, how well did it work and who supplies them?

Thanks in advance
Clinton

 

[JLSeagull]

Welker Engineering makes an "Automatic Insertion Instrument Regulator" sample probe with the PCV trim and thermal fins inside the flowing pipeline to heat the sample stream using the flowing gas. I don't know how much information they will provide regarding the sample flow rate etc. My application was for an analyzer sample probe in something like ethylene or perhaps propylene. However it should work for any JT application.

http://www.welkerasia.com/welker_cd/regulators_filters/regulators_filters11.html