Electric Process Heaters Help Decarbonise Petrochemical Refining

Petrochemical processes have traditionally been heated with fossil fuels for a number of reasons, but the pressure is building to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions and advance long-term decarbonisation goals. Engineers are exploring the potential of electric process heaters to enable all-electric processes, but they often approach the idea with many questions… and maybe a misconception or two. That’s to be expected. Fossil fuel-heated processes leave big shoes to fill when it comes to thermal processes. The technology behind process heaters has changed dramatically in the last ten years, and so the answers to these questions have changed in that time. This is good news for the industry, as electric heaters must be able to provide the same - or improved - performance that petrochemical engineers have come to expect from fossil fuel-powered heaters, if we are to make progress towards true decarbonisation.