Airtorch® Applications

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges of our time. Changing to efficient electric methods with the zero-emission green transition could spur huge economic gains as the world looks to curb climate change. The compact Airtorch® can eliminate fossil-fuel heating, rapidly aid deep decarbonization, and create flexible energy-efficient processes.

Industrial Products and Fuels for a Decarbonized Economy:  Several industrial sectors, such as manufacturing, energy, cement, drying, food, and chemicals, seek tested sustainable alternatives to conventional fossil fuel and low-energy-efficiency heating equipment.

MHI offers a range of powers – all with high energy efficiency. Compact KW to high MW Airtorch® systems for the industrial sector that can aid in significant decarbonization with improved energy efficiency. The Electric Airtorch® is a unique low-pressure-drop patented device used to heat air quickly and other process gases to a temperature ranging from 20°C  to 1300°C.

Use the Airtorch for electrifying high-temperature industrial processes in iron-making, magnesium production, glass furnace decarbonization, alumina calcination, solar cells, ore drying with controlled humidity, cement, bauxite roasting, and other feedstocks, and lime production. Large Airtorch® uses from KW to MW are seen in Jet Engine Test Beds, Automotive Engine Test Beds, Chemical Synthesis, Digestion, Clay calcination, Cement Industry, Drying, or Direct Reduction Processes. They find use in simulating heating in replacing combustion burners and preheaters, test rigs, running power plants, large die heat-up, chemical and metallurgical processes, fuel production, and replacing fossil fuel calcination & kiln firing in several industries, including cement making,  system combustion/flow simulation, additions to cement clinker furnaces, curing, drying, or bonding of paper boards, removal of inorganic and organic salts, fuel cells, thermal energy storage, general heat treatment for bending and de-flashing/deburring, drum heating, plastic rolls, welding of plastics, soldering disinfection, drying, rapid paper, and pulp production, burner burn off, chemical reactions for environment and sustainability applications, and general uniform heating requirements. With devices like the Airtorch and similar high-value equipment, there is the potential to decarbonize roughly 80% of U.S. petroleum refining subsector CO2 emissions by 2050.

What is a decarbonized economy? A decarbonized modern economy has low greenhouse gas emissions from its industrial, transportation, and power generation sectors. The impact of decarbonization can be rapidly achieved by converting fossil-fuel combustion methods to electrical methods. It is straightforward to convert combustion heating and drying to electrical heating and drying. For 1 kWh of energy use or energy conversion by electric methods instead of burning carbon-containing fossil fuels, about 0.8 – 3 lbs. of CO2 production can be prevented. A 100 KW device can prevent 80 – 300 lbs. of CO2 from being made every hour when electrical heating is employed instead of combustion or fossil fuel heating. There are no anticipated drawbacks to decarbonization by electrification because the sizes of electric units available today are very compact.  Compact MW units are available for heating, efficient chemical, and fiber drying processes directly or as thermal storage batteries.

Case Study:   A 14.2 MW gas-combustion process air heater to a 12 MW MHI Electric Airtorch is a $3 million per year saving assuming 12 months, 30 days a month, and 24-hour day. The social cost of the CO2 emitted by burning natural gas has not been factored into this calculation. Review energy calculations.

With over 5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions in the United States in 2017, the utilization and conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals, fuels, polymers, building materials, and other carbon-based products represent an economic opportunity. The MHI Airtorch and MHI steam generator products can be considered for such use.

Case Study:  Several industries make steam in processes like calcination, digestion, alkali reaction processes, etc.; currently, fossil fuels are used for the heating required in such processes. Such processes can quickly be decarbonized with the Compact Electric Airtorch (a typical 1 MW, 480V Airtorch is only 24″ in size) or with a steam-airtorch.

The steam or other effluents generated from such processes can be further heated or reheated and returned for use at a high temperature, Th, with Airtorch® systems. Such chemical returns can used for electricity generation, chemical production, hydrogen production, and other forms of “work” in steam turbines or melting or for sustaining chemical reactions, yielding a very high Carnot efficiency that increases with Th. The Carnot efficiency is (Th-Tl)/Th, where Tl is the condensation temperature.

Decarbonization with Energy and Cost Savings with an MHI process gas heater

See below for many other uses of the Airtorch.  Choose from compact 40KW to 40 MW for 600V, 480V, 400V, and other standard country-specific three-phase voltages.

Thermal processing companies worldwide have pressures to lower their operations’ environmental impact and make them more sustainable. These pressures come from governmental regulations and societal expectations, resulting in increasingly stringent requirements.   Many companies are accelerating their “green” initiatives and programs to leap ahead of these regulations and lead such transformation for their industry. MHI Airtorch® and MightyStea ® can assist your various initiatives. Decarbonize the industrial sector, the agricultural industry, and the building sectors. Cut emissions and decarbonize with MHI products. For energy benefits in any application, from comfort heating to heavy industrial processes, the Airtorch® is a great approach when tackling climate change.

Why Use Electric Process Gas or Steam Heaters?

• The energy cost produced by electric or combustion methods is not that different when the social cost of harmful CO2 is considered.
• Electric heating gives precise temperature control with fast response times.
• Very low-pressure drops save considerable energy.
• Electric heating is ideal for uniformly heating gases and other fluids to high temperatures.
• Unlimited turndown is feasible with precision with electrically heated Airtorch® systems. For example, MHI Airtorch® units of 240 KW or 16 MW offer a 90 % turndown when required.
• Suitable for use in hazardous areas, including external use.
• No in-plant emissions. The most important crisis facing us is the ecological crisis caused by emissions. Emission control is addressed using the best efficiency (system and rules) and the new technologies that can benefit from high-efficiency electrical energy.
•  Contact MHI.

Home Page: Process Air and Process Gas Airtorch® Models.

WHY CHOOSE THE BEST AVAILABLE ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND DURABLE PROCESS HEATER?     Did you know devices used at ~1000°C could last exponentially longer at  700°C? MHI can often provide a full warranty for an Airtoch® that covers the heater.   Check testimonials from customers. Outlet temperature 20°C-1300°C, inlet depending on the model -40°C, 100°C, 450°C, 800°C. Choice of shell pressure. New high-value, highly compact duct modules are now used for transforming combustion ovens into electrically powered air-heating ovens. Ask MHI for the best warranty on heating systems. Why is decarbonization a competitive advantage? Contact MHI  for changing from fossil fuel combustion preheating.

Home Page: Process Air and Process Gas Airtorch® Models

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Uniformity with Airtorch®

Process Air and Process Gas Airtorch® Models. (120/240/400/480/600V)

MHI Airtorch® models of extremely high energy efficiencies. They are manufactured to ASME specification-compliant pressure vessels/ schedules – built by an experienced company with patented technology where required.   Airtorch models range from 1 KW to several MW. The smaller KW models are LTA, VTA MTA925, and GTA925—the larger flow models are  MVTA and GTA (high-pressure) classes. MHI staff and technicians are committed to excellence.

To help with  COVID and other bacterial or virus losses, we encourage our customers to support front-line workers at hospitals, testing clinics, and other healthcare facilities to fight against the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease with innovative uses of the steam products and Airtorch® Products for rapid field sterility.

Let us help with Industrial Decarbonization.

DECARBONIZE

Decarbonizing the industrial sector is very important to address our climate crisis.   Almost a third of the greenhouse gas emission is from the industrial sector. CO2 emissions can be reduced quickly, as can emissions from the fuel-making, general industrial heating, and chemical and steam sectors. The first steps in decarbonization are eliminating heat production by fossil-fuel-fired combustion and relying on electrical energy instead of heating. This can significantly impact CO2 emissions; e.g., the cement industry produces about 10% of global human-made CO₂ emissions, of which about 60% is from the chemical process and 40% is from burning fuel.

Although there may be a cost to changing to high-quality clean energy, the benefits are astounding. Greenhouse emissions from American, European, and other regions have already decreased by 23% – between 1990 and 2018, while the economy grew by 61% (click for reference). Not bad. But much more can be done using the Electric Airtorch or the MightySteam(R) steam systems.

Methane emissions are of great concern for global warming and climate change. Did you know that Methane has a global warming potential of almost 25 compared to carbon dioxide? Uses of the Airtorch include cold gas to be cracked (the cracking process), i.e., for Naphta or Ethane for ethylene production. If one is considering bio-fuels or valuable products like carbon monoxide (CO), formic acid (HCOOH), Methane (CH4), ethylene (C2H4), or ethane (C2H6) from CO2 conversion – please get in touch with MHI with your requirements.  Heat without chemical or energy wastage, e.g., Methane or other petrochemical gases, can be heated to have the least residence time to prevent coke formation.

What is Green Steel?   Steel that does not contain carbon. Iron ore is reduced at about 850C with hydrogen to make such steels. The carbonaceous (coke) reduction methods commonly used to produce iron are not employed when making green Steel. Consequently, there is no carbon present in such iron or Steel. Hydrogen-based direct reduction uses hydrogen instead of coal as a reagent to reduce iron ore to pig iron, eliminating the CO2 emissions from the equivalent process in a traditional blast furnace.

The microstructure of Steel is conditioned such that it competes with carbon steel with valuable properties of strength, flexibility, and toughness. Green steel production also avoids secondary carbon-reducing processes like the Basic Oxygen Process.   Green steels could include alloying elements like hydrogen, oxygen (see above for Fe/FeO composites), nitrogen or boron, aluminum, manganese, vanadium, molybdenum, etc. The chart below shows the power of critical carbon-containing steels and some without carbon.

Link to US Government Roadmap to Decarbonization