Jet Fuel Application, by Matthew Guillot

Application

To heat jet fuel in an airline delivery vessel to keep it from freezing.

Customer Requirements

Pipe thread construction, fit into the existing design, thermostat controlled and must be explosion-proof.

Problem

The potential customer had recently received a large price increase for their vendor. The customer was already using a competitor’s pipe thread equivalent of a strip heater that allowed them to get a higher KW in a shorter heater length aiding in a reasonable w/in2.

We suggested switching to a tubular element but the diameter of the customer’s equipment fitting wouldn’t allow us to fit more than one “U” bent element along with a thermowell.

Solution

Kerosene oil at 100°F can handle a watt density of 20 w/in2. In order to maintain the watt density and a short single element we suggested “J” bending the element back. This allowed us to provide a Kerosene oil at 100°F can handle a watt density of 20 w/in2 small diameter threading and a longer element bent back to keep it at a shorter length. Since the heater needed to be operated in a hazardous area we designed the elements out of 304 SST as well as the fitting. We put a NEMA 7 terminal box on the fitting and also provided a NEMA 7 indicating light that the customer would install in one of the hubs to indicate that the heater was on.