Resin Drying: Natural Gas Powered Process Heaters Offer Energy Savings
Conair says that with its GasTrac process air heaters, processors can realize energy cost savings of up to 70% by replacing electricity with natural gas as a heat source for dehumidifying dryers.
Conair’s GasTrac process air heaters are available in three sizes—350,000, 500,000 and 700,000 BTU/hr input—and can be paired with Conair Carousel Plus central drying systems or as a retrofit to electrically heated dryers.
Upgrades to the heaters include a new 4-inch color touchscreen HMI that is linked to an advanced control system enabling users to operate and monitor both burner and process controls without opening the GasTrac enclosure. The control displays operating, alarm and warning information in plain text, eliminating the need for error-code lookups.
By replacing electricity with natural gas as a power source for heating of dehumidfying dryer air, Conair’s GasTrac promises energy cost savings.
Conair notes that when GasTrac units provide process heat for its Carousel Plus central dryers, the new control package makes integration seamless. Once connected, the GasTrac heater can be controlled locally through the integrated HMI; through the HMI on the dryer; or remotely using Conair’s SmartServices cloud-based monitoring and control system. With any of these, users can control drying temperatures; watch energy usage or trend data; set automatic starts and stops; monitor alarms; or manage equipment maintenance information.
The GasTrac heaters are built around a ceramic gas burner with a variable frequency blower drive for precision regulation of combustion air flow, which minimizes emissions and reportedly boosts fuel efficiency above 85%. A stainless-steel heat exchanger isolates process air flow from combustion gases for continuous, contamination-free flow of drying air. Conair says GasTrac process heaters meet or exceed industry requirements, including UL, AGA, CGA, FM, NFPA, and IAS.
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