Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.

al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology

ISSN: 2454-132X
Impact factor: 4.295
(Volume 4, Issue 2)
Available online at: www.ijariit.com

Designing and mathematical simulation of cylindrical and box

type fired heater (used for heating of coke oven gas)
Laxmi Mani Tiwari Dr. Sachin P Parikh
laxmimani2005@gmail.com sachinparikh@hotmail.com
Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering, Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Mangesh Gampawar Pankaj Choudhary

mangesh.gampwar@linde.com pankaj.choudhary@linde.com
Linde Engineering India Pvt. Ltd, Linde Engineering India Pvt. Ltd,
Vadodara, Gujarat Vadodara, Gujarat
ABSTRACT
Fired heaters are used considerably in the energy related industries and petroleum industries for heating crude oil in oil and gas
sectors, refineries, DRI heater and iron ore industries. After realizing the fuel crisis and for being economical, researchers
started thinking towards optimization of this process unit too. The aim of the simulation of Fired heater is to design the radiant
and convection sections of heaters with consideration of multiple influencing factors. Along with, heat recovery from different
sections of fired heater and revamping possibilities to improve the heater efficiency, to reduce the flue gas temperature till certain
limit. There are a multiple influencing factors that affecting the design of fired heater at the time of simulation like, type of coil,
coil size, coil length, heater configuration, number of feed flow passes, flow rate of feed and fuel type.
In the present paper, I did the comparison of simulation result on multiple influencing factors of same problem formulation in
Cylindrical and Box type fired heater and discussion after changing the parameters by using FRNC-5PC simulator.

Keywords: Coil Size, Efficiency, Firing Rate and Area etc.

1. INTRODUCTION
Furnaces/ fired heaters are used throughout industry to provide the heat, using the combustion of fuels. Fired heaters are most
important equipment in any refinery or Chemical plant. A fired heater is an insulated process equipment in which heat liberated by
the combustion of fuel is transferred to a process fluid flowing through tubular coils. Number of fired heaters depend on the size
and complexity of refinery or plant [2]. The configuration of coils is arranged along the walls and roof of the combustion chamber
or radiant section or firebox where heat is transferred primarily by radiation. Above the radiant section, heat is transfer by convection
in tubular coils, it’s mainly added to the equipment for waste heat recovery [1]. In this paper, we are heating Coke Oven Gas which
are recovered from DRI, for heating purpose we are using Cylindrical and box, two types of fired heater while considering same
process parameters and will do the discussion on result of the same heaters output with various varying parameters. It will give the
basic ideas regarding designing. Fired heater operated for the heating of Coke Oven Gas, are small and not so complex, mainly two
type of fired heater we have used [7]:

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology

Fig. 1 Box type heater

1. Box (or cabin) heater type as shown in Fig. 1, is favoured for large heat duty applications (approximately 20 MW and more) and
contains horizontal oriented tubes (or tube bank) in both radiant and convection parts of heater.

Fig. 2 Vertical Cylindrical heater

2. Vertical cylindrical type heater as shown in Fig. 2, is preferred for small and or medium heat duty applications (below 20 MW)
and contains vertically oriented tubes in radiant chamber and horizontally oriented tubes (or tube banks) in convection part of heater
[7].
Following further description of individual parts of fired heater (of two above mentioned types) along with operating parameters
gives us an idea about situation and basic designing steps:
1.1 Fired Heater Parts and Operating Parameters:
Arrangements and design of individual parts (tube coils and tube banks) of fired heaters influenced by a lot to the tube configuration
and combustion product which is dominantly influencing factor of heat flux in overall heat transfer section along with heating
process parameter of coke oven gas. As per below mentioned description presents fired heater operation and heating of coke oven
gas.
1.2 Radiation Chamber (Firebox)
In the radiation section combustion of fuel on burners takes place, which leads to very high flue gas temperature (approx. 150 to
800-degree C) and mode of heat transfer is mainly (dominant) radiation here. Tubes usually located close to cabin walls are exposed
to high heat fluxes and to radiation-convection mechanism. These high flue gas temperatures do not allow applications of extended
surfaces or any other techniques of heat transfer enhancement and compact solutions. The high temperature causes the melting of
fins or extended surface of tubes. It is possible to optimize their location with respect to economically effective utilization of released
heat by tube system in radiation chamber.
1.3 Crossover from Radiation chamber to Convection Section:
The shield section/crossover section connect the radiant and convection section to each other and it consists minimum 3 rows of
bare tube and scope of two future tube along with minimum 2 rows of extended surface tube for maximum heat recovery from flue
gases. The gap between bare tube to extended surface tube should be minimum 400mm for cleaning and maintenance purpose.

1.4 Stack (Release/utilization of flue gas waste heat from heater):

Flue gas usually comes out of convection section of furnace with maintained temperature greater than dew point of flue gases
(specially sulphur). Stack height varies from country to country as per pollution policies and environmental norms along with
composition of flue gas. As per API560, the height of bottom of radiant section to exit of flue gas from stack, must be 30m.

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature is littered with an abundance of optimal design methods for fired heaters. Bahadori and Vuthaluru introduced a correlation
with the specific purpose of designing radiant and convection coils for industrial fired heater. Expressing the true efficiency makes
the exergy a powerful tool in sectoral energy analysis and engineering design. Finding the resources for limiting NOx from fired
heaters has become a major thrust of many sectors in the chemical processing industry usually its depend on the reaction temperature,
the local stoichiometry and the residence time [3]. Normally, it is the heater designer’s responsibility to avoid flue gas condensation
in the heater. The flue gas dew point is predicted so we can keep the flue gas temperature above it [9].

3. BASIC DATA NEEDED FOR HEATER DESIGN

The minimum amount of data needed to create a heater design would be as follows:
• Heater duty to be absorbed by the heater
• Process Flow to the heater
• Inlet and outlet conditions temperature
• Outlet pressure
• Pressure drop allowed
• A property grid of process transport properties or as a minimum, the approximate inlet and outlet properties including thermal
conductivity, viscosity, and specific heat.
• If the process fluid is mixed phase, then you will need to use a data grid to get a meaningful calculation for the pressure drop,
especially if it is all liquid at inlet and mixed phase at outlet, since the thermal design program would have no way to determine
where vaporization begins without a data grid.
• Fuel Data including the composition of gas the lower heating value and method of atomization to be used as well as conditions of
air or steam if used for atomizing.
• Site specific data such as ambient temperature and elevation.
• Target or maximum tube flux in the radiant section.
For the purpose of demonstrating the designing methods, we must have a heater problem statement in which at least below mentioned
data is available:
Services –
• Duty – 4.5Gcal/hr
• Flow – 30000 NCMH
• Inlet temperature (°C) – 80±10
• Outlet temperature (°C) – 400±10
• Pressure drop allowed – 3.5 bar g
• Description of inlet & outlet conditions
• Percent Vapor, in mol % 1.0
• Viscosity, Cp 1277.002
• Specific Heat, .75475 Kcal/kg-C
• Conductivity, Btu/hr‐ft‐F 0.3950 0.3971
• Site Ambient Temperature – 40 °C
• Site Elevation above MSL – 150
• Target Average Radiant Flux Rate – 21,500 to 28000 Kcal/(hr.m2)
• Target Efficiency – 80 to 87 % (assumed)
• Burners Natural Gas, Low NOx configuration
Feed and Fuels have the following compositions, in mole %:
Table 1: Fuel/Feed Compositions

Sr no. Composition (Mole %) Feed (COG) Fuel 1, COG Fuel 2, TOP GAS FUEL
1 CO 4-6 4-6 14-19
2 CO2 3-4 3-4 13-15
3 H2 55-62 55-62 48-50
4 H2O 3-4 3-4 6-12
5 N2 Max. 4 Max. 4 3-6
6 O2 0.3-0.7 0.3-0.7 -
7 CH4 24-28 24-28 4-5
8 C2H6 1-2 1-2 -
9 C3H8 0.1-0.3 0.1-0.3 -
10 C4H10 - - -
11 C5H12 - - -
12 C6H14 0.5-0.9 0.5-0.9 -
13 H2S 0.4-1.2 0.4-1.2 -
14 NH3 0-1.1 0-1.1 -
15 HCN 0-1.2 0-1.2 -
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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
3.1 Radiant Configuration Selection: For the first example, we will say that plot limitations make the Vertical Tube Cylindrical
Design more attractive.
3.1.1 Preliminary estimate of surface in radiant section: To begin a design, you can assume that approximately 70% of the heat
to be absorbed will be absorbed in the radiant section, and the remaining in the convection section.
Approximate surface = 0.70 * 45,000,000 / 21,500 = 146.51 m2
3.1.2 Deciding the initial tube size and layout for trial and error:
Now, we are going to design this heater as a vertical tube cylindrical heater, for this we a rough assumption for tube circle and tube
length to start the designing procedure for simulation,
OD= 0.1143 m
Thickness= 0.0127 m
Tube length L = 9.00858 m
Tube circle diameter (TCD) = 4 m
3.1.3 Dimensions of firebox
Height of radiant section, metre = 9+1= 10 m
Diameter of radiant section, metre = TCD + 1 m (gap between refractory line to tube center = 2*OD) = 4 +1 = 5 m
3.1.4 Convection Section: (for rectangular opening)
Length, L = tube circle diameter of radiant section = 5 m
Width, W = L/2.75 = 5/2.75 = 1.81 m
Height of convection section = H = 3*.2286 + .4 + 2*.2286 = 1.543 m
Since API 560 requires this type of heater to have an L/D ratio of less than 2.75, and if L/D is greater than 2.75 than we have to
increase the number of tubes.
3.2 Preliminary Design consideration of Radiant Section for box type heater
3.2.1 Convection Section Dimensions
No. of tubes = 35
Effective tube length = tube dia (OD)*no. of tubes
Width = L/2.75 (L/W ≤ 2.75, as per API 560)
Height = 1
For initial calculation only based on industrial experience, later it can be optimized by the GUI of software, if needed.
L = .1143*35 m = 4.005 m
W = 4.0005/2.75 m = 1.45 m
H = 3*.2286 + .4 + 2*.2286 = 1.543 m
3.2.2 Radiant Section Dimensions
Length = Length of convection section + 1 (1 to 1.5 m) = 5.0053 m
Width = Length of radiant section/2.75 = 5.0053/2.75 = 1.82 m
Height = 1 m (approx.)
And tube dimensions are same as convection section.
3.3 Initial considerations for fired heater designing - FRNC-05PC
3.3.1 For radiant section
• First, decided that 70% of heater duty we should get from radiant section
• Tube angle orientation
• Gap between refractory line to tube centre is
• Height of firebox = nominal length of tube + 0.5 m

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
3.3.2 For convection section
• Number of bare coil rows in shock section
• Number of extended surface coil rows
• Minimum gap between bare coil to extended surface coil is 400 mm
• Two future row space
3.3.3 Essential software inputs
• Flue gas direction, vertical/horizontal
• Feed flow direction, up/down/neither
• Location of coil in each section of fired heater, centre/wall
• Firing conditions
• Process conditions
• Location of firing, top/bottom/terrace
• Tube spacing
• Distance between refractory to tube
3.4 Stack Dimensions (common for both type of fired heater): Mainly based on GPCB (Government pollution control board).
I entered values as mentioned below:
Note: We are considering the same data regarding design of box type fired heater as we calculated for the cylindrical type fire heater
(we are not considering any coil in hip section of box type heater due to smaller capacity) because it’s easy to calculate no. of tubes
size in cylindrical design compare to box type heater with maintaining the efficiency of fired heater design.
3.5 Number of tube side paths: The number of tube side paths or flow streams in the heater will be assumed as two. This will be
increased or decreased during thermal design to meet pressure loss requirements.
3.6 Data Input Procedure in FRNC-5Pc Simulator:
• Enter the simulation environment in FRNC-05PC software, add the radiant, convection and stack section with calculated
approximate measurements as mentioned above and specify the path of flue gases, in first attempt of run the result we will get, may
be approximate value then we have to change the dimensions while keeping the outlet temperature, pressure drop and efficiency in
our mind.
• Enter the number of coils, coils configurations and specify the fin material.
• Feed the process data and fuel data and their compositions as per attached screenshots required by software.
• In FRNC-05PC software, we can see the both lateral and side view of coil that helps a lot to visualise the coil configuration as a
beginner.
3.7 Graphical user interface of FRNC-05PC software

3.8 Trial and error analysis result: In the first attempt we considered above mentioned data and did analysis of output results. To
get the efficiency between 70 to 85 %, for this we considered below mentioned process parameters for optimization,
• Stack flue gas temperature
• Velocity of feed
• Pressure drop inside the coil
• ΔT (temperature) of flue gas in and out at each section of tube bundle
To get the desired efficiency we considered following parameters and their subjected variables to optimize the simulated result,

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
Table 2: Controlling points and subjected variables

Sr. No. Controlling points Subjected variables

1 Stack flue gas temperature Tubes, no./row
2 Control on velocity of feed in the tube/coil No. of tube paths/dia.
3 Reduction in pressure drop in the coil Tube ID
4 ΔT of flue gas in and out, at each tube bundle No of tube in each section
5 Reasons for specifying instrumentation in designing To control the operations
6 What are the normal Operational issues and their impact on Quality of design and
productivity optimization
7 Coil material and thickness selection impact, on efficiency Maintenance cost and safety

4. OPTIMIZATION
Design optimization is the process of finding the best design parameters that satisfy project requirements. Engineers/Process
Designers typically use design of experiments (DOE), trial and error methods, used of algorithms, statistics, and other optimization
techniques to evaluate trade-offs and determine the best design.
4.1 Dimensions and other parameters consideration during optimization:
In designing, optimization is the process of finding the best design parameters that satisfy project requirements. Engineers/Process
Designers typically use below mentioned optimization techniques to evaluate trade-offs and determine the best design,
• Design of experiments (DOE)
• Trial and error methods
• Use of algorithms
• Statistics
Table 3: Optimized heater dimensions and coil/tube properties

Sr. No. Radiant section, Cylindrical type Box type

1 Dimensions, (m) l * d / l * W * H 8.5 * 3.5 8.5 * 3.5 * 5.5
2 Tube length, m 8 8
3 Number of tube paths 4 4
4 Coil dia, m 0.2191 0.2191
5 Coil material P9(9.0Cr/1.0M0) P9
6 No. of coil in radiant section 24 24
7 Highest tube skin temperature, (ºC), 11 544 543
Table. 4

Convection section

Dimension (l*w*h) (m*m*m) 3.5 * 1.8 * 3 3.5 * 1.8 * 3

1
Convection section coil length, m 3 3
2
Number of coil paths 4 4
3
Coil dia, m 0.2191 0.2191
4
Coil material, 21/22 P9/.2 carbon metal P9/.2 carbon metal
5
No. of coil in Convection section 20 20
6
7 Length of coil in con. Section, m 3 3

8 Type of fin Serrated fin Serrated fin

9 Fin material .2 carbon metal .2 carbon metal

10 Fin length, thickness, height, no. of fins/cm, m 3/0.0945/30/0.79 3/0.0945/30/0.79
11 Highest tube skin temperature, (ºC), 21/22 364/503 475/336
12 Stack height, m 18.5 21.5

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
4.2 Graphs
We can see the proportional relation between temperature and the tube number, as we increase the number of tubes the temperature
of feed in the coil will automatically increase while the mass flow rate is constant as we know, increasing in the number of tubes is
directly proportional to the residence time of feed in the coil of fired heater.

Graph 1. Temperature versus Tube number

Graph 2: Tube outer skin temp. versus tube number

In graph 2, it happened because at the case of start of run condition of heater, at that time heater duty is low as it increases with time
we can see the proportional relation between tube skin temperature and tube number after that, there is sharp decrease in the
temperature and further increase in the tube number, increases the tube film temperature that depicts the flow of feed from shield
section to radiant section while heater duty is also increasing with time.
4.3 Optimized Result Study
To achieve the desired efficiency, we had simulated the given problem statement while considered optimized firebox and tube
dimensions and tube material. After getting efficiency between 70 to 85, we did comparison among process parameters of output
file of different cases for design of both type of fired heater, for which we have a defined range based on client requirement or
industrial experience and we must have to meet in these ranges of process parameters.

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
Table 4. Details of process parameters

Sr. no. Process parameters Cylindrical type Box type

1 Efficiency 79.8 81
2 Pressure In, KPa 348.9 348.8
3 Pressure out, KPa 340 340
4 Actual/ Allowable Pressure drop, KPa 8.9/10 8.8/10
5 Temp. in, (C) 78.2 79.2
6 Temp out, (C) 400 400
7 Vapour phase 1 1
8 Feed Velocity, m/s 22 27.6 27.7
22 31.3 31
21 36.5 35.7
11 54.3 54.3
9 ΔT, at each tube bundle, 22 198.9 185.3
21 204 181
11 0 0
10 Firing rate, MW 5.891 5.786
11 Flue gas stack entry temperature 404.1 379.3
12 Flue gas temp at radiant coil 816 750.5
13 Entry/exit of Flue gas temp. at radiant section (C) 869.9/816 785.5/750.5
14 % of heat duty absorbed in radiant section 69.9 72.9

5. CONCLUSION
By mathematical designing and simulation of fired heater for heating of COG gas, we got efficiency of Cylindrical type fired is
approx. 80 and for box type it is 80-82. As mentioned data in the Table 2. Some points mentioned below as per observation,
• Fixed the dimensions of each section of fired heater for both type of heater designing w.r.t. each other.
• Also, fixed coil length, coil OD, coil numbers and coil material.
• Fixed fin length, height, number of fins per cm.
• Consider common process parameters for designing of both type of fired heater.
Observations: Points are mentioned below,
• Efficiency of Box type fired heater is greater than cylindrical type fired heater.
• Other process parameters are also within range in the box type of fired heater compare to cylindrical type fired heater.
The only major difference is the required installation area, in the box type it needs 29.75 m2 compare to cylindrical type which
required only 9.62 m2. In short, we can say that box type fired heater is quite good compare to cylindrical type fired heater as per
process point of view. As we can see the selection of box type fired heater will increase the capital cost of designing, compare to
cylindrical type fired heater but parallelly it will reduce the operational cost compare to cylindrical type fired heater.

6. REFERENCES
[1] “Simulation study of Coke Oven Gas Heating in Cylindrical and Box Type Heater Using FRNC-5PC Simulator” accessed on
17thSeptember, http://www.pfrengineering.com/products/frnc-5pc/
[2] “Simulation study of Coke Oven Gas Heating in Cylindrical and Box Type Heater Using FRNC-5PC Simulator” accessed on
25thSeptember, http://www.vergaengineering.it/f/images/07.jpg
[3] “Simulation study of Coke Oven Gas Heating in Cylindrical and Box Type Heater Using FRNC-5PC Simulator” accessed on
24thSeptember, http://www.vergaengineering.it/f/images/22.jpg
[4] “Simulation study of Coke Oven Gas Heating in Cylindrical and Box Type Heater Using FRNC-5PC Simulator” accessed on
6thSeptember, http://www.thermaxglobal.com/boilers-and-heaters/large-boilers/fired-heaters/
[5] “Simulation study of Coke Oven Gas Heating in Cylindrical and Box Type Heater Using FRNC-5PC Simulator” accessed on
27thSeptember, http://www.techengineering.it/images/img_forni_indust_processo.jpg
[6] “Simulation study of Coke Oven Gas Heating in Cylindrical and Box Type Heater Using FRNC-5PC Simulator” accessed on
9thOctober, http://ispatguru.com/coke-oven-gas-generation-and-usage/
[7] Cliff Lowe, Nick Brancaccio, Dan Batten, Chris Leung – Dick Waibel “Technology Assessment of Hydrogen Firing of Process
Heaters”, Chevron Energy Technology Company, Richmond, CA, USA, Chevron Energy Technology Company, Houston, TX,
USA. volume 4, 2011 (pages 1058-1065).
[8] Navid Parnian, “Failure analysis of austenitic stainless-steel tubes in a gas fired steam heater”, Department of Technical
Inspection & Protection, South Zagros Oil & Gas Production Co., Shiraz Iran. 2011.12.027.
[9] A. Garg, “Get the Most from Your Fired Heater”, Senior Thermal Engineer at Furnace Improvements (Sugar Land, Texas),
March 2004 issue.

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 Tiwari Laxmi Mani et.al; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology
[10] A. Garg, “Specify better low-NOX burners for furnaces”, is Manager of Thermal Engineering at Kinetics Technology
International Corp. (KTI), Houston (Sugar Land, Texas), January 1994 issue, pages 46-49.

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