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Direct Fired (VFTU Series) Vaporizers: The VFTU series are 'fire tube burner-generated' hot gas heated water
bath vaporizers. Hot gas is generated by a burner system and circulated
through heat exchangers heating water retained in a ballast tank to the
required temperature; cryogen is vaporized through tube bundles by
direct contact with hot water.
VFTU series generated hot gas heated water bath vaporizers
are generally used for the higher capacity requirements. They range
from 250,000 SCFH to in excess of 3,000,000 SCFH (6,600 to 80,000
Nm3/hr). They are most commonly used in pipeline back-up service or
other high volume systems such as steel mills, or LNG peak-shaving and
LNG send-out station duty.
Tube bundles are available in standard incremental sizes, as are the
tanks. Bundles and tanks can be used in a variety of combinations to
achieve most customer requirements of steady state capacity and ballast
time. Several different process and pressure building bundles can be
installed in a single tank. These systems are essentially self
contained requiring only on site connection of services and gases prior
to being operational.
These units are more expensive for a given capacity than a
direct steam vaporizer, but hot water bath vaporizers offer several
advantages. The biggest advantage is that the water ballast in the tank
can store energy and thereby allow process gas vaporization to continue
even after loss of the hot gas heating supply. The ballast time is
variable and is often specified by the customer, particularly for
back-up systems. If no ballast time is specified, 3 to 5 minutes is
typical of the design. Ballast times up to 30 minutes have been
specified and achieved for some high volume plant back-up systems.
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