WB-E electric water bath heater

In the WB-E, a bank of electric heaters at the bottom of an insulated shell heats water or another bath liquid. The liquid circulates by natural convection and passes its heat to process coils in the upper part of the shell and on to the fluid flowing through them, so gas is heated without a high-pressure vessel. TSB builds the heater for up to 8 000 000 kcal/h (32 000 000 Btu/h) of electrically supplied heat. A bath temperature of 87 °C (190 °F) is regarded as the operating maximum, and lower temperatures are preferred where inlet and outlet conditions allow.

When pressure is reduced at gas wellheads and in pipelines, the Joule-Thomson effect cools the gas by roughly 5 °C for every 1000 kPa of pressure drop, so the heater is placed ahead of pressure reduction to prevent ice crystals and hydrates. Other duties include lowering crude oil viscosity and keeping it above the paraffin pour point, heating well fluids before separators, preventing sulphur deposits from high-sulphur gas, vaporising LPG and LNG, and heating regeneration gas, amine and TEG reboilers and chemicals. It is intended for oil fields, offshore platforms, refineries and LNG and LPG plants.

A temperature controller with SSR drives holds the bath at its set value, an expansion tank on top absorbs the liquid's volume changes, and coil sections can be taken out of the shell for inspection and repair. Coil connections, flanges and valves are rated to ANSI/ASME B16.5 or API 6A. A safety alarm unit detects high temperature as well as high and low pressure and provides fail-safe relay outputs. Design follows API 12K, ASME Section VIII Div. 1, PED 2014/68/EU and DIN 4754, or ANSI B31.1.