Hi. New here. I found this board when looking for some PFIE info and saw there were some questions on why there is a need for heaters in the oil field. I do work in the oil field and the company I work for uses Profire units so I hope to answer some questions, I don't want to get into big detail so I will keep this fairly simple. So here is my $0.02.
1) Heaters are needed on natural gas wells since the gas under ground is under high pressure and when released into the pipeline the pressure drops. If I remember my physics, gas temperature can drop 7 degrees for every 100 PSI pressure drop so the gas can get very cold. Gas from a well always has some moisture and will freeze in the pipeline and plug it up unless the gas is heated.
2) Heaters are also needed on long pipelines in cold climates, again to keep moisture from freezing.
3) With heavy oil (very thick), if the oil was not heated they could not get the oil to move very fast through pipelines. Also some well sites have tanks which are emptied to transportation trucks, again the oil has to be heated or it would take forever to load the truck.
4) Gas processing plants use heaters in various places for the removal of moisture, harmful or corrosive gases before the gas is sold for residential use.
5) Oil processing plants use heaters to break apart the oil into gasoline and other fuels.
6) Incineration. Government requires the safe disposal of dangerous gases from wells. Incinerating the gases at very high temperatures breaks them down into something safe.
What was done in the past to light the heaters? A long stick with a rag soaked with WD40 (I am not kidding). The pilot gas was turned on, the rag lit and stuck into the heater. The operator tried to stand to the side incase the heater backfired. With todays focus on safety, you can imagine all new heater installed have burner controllers but there are still thousands of wells out there that are still lit with a rag.
Why isn't Honeywell in the market, they make burner controllers? Honeywell makes controllers that work off 120 volt power. At remote well sites, 120 volt power is not usually available so Profire units are designed to use very little power and work off 12 or 24 volt power supplies which are solar powered or powered with thermo-electric generators. Profire units can be installed outdoors, they are optimized for the requirements of the oil and gas industry. Also field support is needed with the burners and Profire has that where as Honeywell does not have an army of burner support people in the field that know about the oil industry.
What about other competition? Talking with the people at the plant I work at they said "With the older model Profire unit, the 1100 it was the best on the market. The new 2100 is even better with the additional features plus Profire supports the customers in the field where as the competition just sells units."
Why did Profire loose money in the first quarter of this year? In my opinion Profire made a mistake (the dummies) to tell people the new unit was soon coming. Our company held back buying their older burner controllers until the new units were available.
So there. I probably sound like a walking advertisement for Profire but the company I work for is sold on them and I figure their new stock can only go up.
