Reducing Heat Loss in Pipeline Transportation with Aerogel Blankets in Petrochemical Industry | SA450

• What is an aerogel blanket and why is it being used as an insulation material in the petrochemical industry?
• How does it compare to traditional insulation materials?
• Can you give an example of its application in the industry?
• What is the potential market size for aerogel in the oil and gas transmission pipeline industry?

Here is the Answers.

In recent years, Aerogel blanket has been widely used as a new type of insulation material in the petrochemical industry for oil and gas transmission, steam pipelines, and process pipelines, effectively reducing heat loss during the transportation of pipeline media.

Currently, materials such as calcium silicate, composite silicate, and rock wool are mainly used for pipeline insulation. The thermal conductivity of these insulation materials will increase significantly with the rise of environmental temperature and humidity. To meet the requirement of not exceeding the maximum allowable heat loss, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the insulation material. Using a thicker insulation layer will have a significant impact on the transportation, construction, and use space of the material.

Therefore, adopting technologically advanced and efficient insulation materials for energy-saving renovation of thermal pipelines, reducing the thickness of the insulation layer, and reducing pipeline heat loss is an important area to overcome in thermal pipeline energy-saving insulation. The pore size of aerogel is smaller than the average free path of air molecules under normal pressure, which can make air molecules in the aerogel pore nearly static, avoiding convective heat transfer of air.

The very low volume density of aerogel and the bending path of its nanometer network structure also prevent gaseous and solid thermal conduction, and the infinite number of cavity walls can reduce heat radiation to the minimum. Through three aspects of joint action, it almost blocks the path of heat transfer, making aerogel achieve outstanding insulation effect, even lower than the thermal conductivity of static air at normal temperature of 0.025W/(m·K), reaching below 0.013W/(m·K).

Compared with traditional insulation materials, the thermal conductivity of silica aerogel insulation blanket is only 1/3 to 1/5 of traditional insulation materials, and its thermal insulation capacity is 2 to 8 times that of traditional materials. It has excellent fire resistance and water resistance, as well as good tensile, compressive strength, and chemical stability.

According to the paper <Application and Performance Analysis of Silica Aerogel Insulation Blanket>, the Tower Refinery of Sinopec used traditional type III high-temperature glass wool blanket insulation material for atmospheric coking equipment, and the subsequent pipeline insulation structure was reformed using silica aerogel insulation blanket + single-sided aluminum foil fiberglass cloth insulation material combination.

The paper shows through comparative analysis and calculation before and after the transformation of high-temperature pipelines that:

(1) after using silica aerogel insulation blanket as a new type of insulation material, heat loss was reduced by 34.66%, and the energy-saving effect was significant;

(2) silica aerogel insulation blanket as a new type of insulation material has obvious advantages in insulation performance compared with traditional insulation materials, particularly in terms of a significant reduction in temperature difference between the starting and ending points of the thermal pipeline and a more than 50% reduction in insulation layer thickness compared with traditional insulation materials.

Therefore, silica aerogel insulation blanket, as a new type of insulation material, has properties such as fire resistance, waterproofing, and ultra-low thermal conductivity, and has a long service life, making it an ideal choice for high-temperature pipelines in refineries.