Long onshore pipeline heat treated

[FilippoT]

Hi,
we have an existing long pipeline (130 Km) currently installed w/o exteranl coating and not buried that need to be heated in order to avoid the cool down of the fluid that has an high pour point.
does anybody have any experience of long pipeline heat traced? Is it possible to have a reference value of Watt/m needed to heat a 10" line?

Thanks

Filippo

 

[LittleInch]

Any decent heat tracing vendor will be able to give you the answer, but you need to know / imput into the equations:

Maintain Temp of fluid
Fluid thermal properties
Insulation thickness
Insulation thermal properties
Min external temperature
Max wind speed

A few things are a little odd here.
130km of above ground pipeline?? ON supports or laid on the ground?
Without insulation you cannot heat trace the line - the heating losses would be VAST.

Some more details would be appreciated.


Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[miningman]

I have only worked with heat trace rated at 3 and 5 watts per foot. Even at these values, many people seriously underestimate the electrical consumption and associated power bill. I suspect Litleinch is correct.......you have a vast problem here.