Heaters for the Oil & Gas Industry

CAS offers a range of thermal solutions to OEMs and processors in petroleum & natural gas markets.

Cast Aluminum Solutions manufactures these fuel gas conditioning heaters for natural gas warming applications in the power plant industry.

CAS is at the leading edge of the natural gas renaissance, with thermal solutions to prevent the negative effects of Joule-Thomson cooling and optimize LNG utilization. We also play key roles in certain petroleum-related applications, delivering the ability to safely heat flammable liquids and gases.

  • Fuel Gas Conditioning Heaters: Cast Aluminum Solutions manufactures industry-leading high-throughput fuel gas conditioning heaters and cold start-up heaters for natural gas powered turbines.
  • Heaters for Gas Metering Stations: Our CAST-X Heaters may be installed as inline natural gas heaters in field-based gas metering stations and pressure reduction stations, countering the effects of J-T cooling.
  • Dry Gas Seal Heaters: CAS provides OEMs and end-users with high-volume, high-pressure compatible heaters for installation on dry gas seal modules for centrifugal compressors and turbo expanders.
  • Heaters for LNG Downstream & Dispensing Applications: CAS offers a wide selection of heater sizes and configurations that fit LNG testing, gasification, transport and dispensing applications.
  • Soil Evaluation Heaters: Mud analysis and soil testing heaters for retort instruments are a CAS specialty.

Fuel Gas Conditioning Heaters for Natural Gas Turbines

Clean-burning natural gas is plentiful and accessible, and today's high-efficiency natural gas turbines represent a seachange in power generation. However, cold startups can negatively affect generator performance. CAS has partnered with Metweld, a leading integrator, to develop a solution that heats fuel gases to the optimal operational temperature, dramatically decreasing ramp-up times in cold start situations.

Image showing heaters for fuel gas conditioning of natural gas used in turbines, supplied by Cast Aluminum Solutions in Batavia, IL.
  • Pre-heating fuel gases allows turbines to ‘quick start,’ substantially decreasing ramp-up times.
  • Fuel gas conditioning heaters from Cast Aluminum Solutions are compatible with the high flowrates seen in commercial power generation, yet flexible in terms of power and scale. 
  • CAS’s modular multi-stage heaters provide higher temperature ranges vs. other approaches.
  • Turbine gas fuel heaters designed & manufactured by CAS have no direct contact with the fuel, enhancing safety and reducing the potential for particulate matter ingress.
  • MetWeld’s proprietary thermal modeling technology establishes appropriate design specifications, therefore reducing engineering timelines and ensuring predictable heat transfer results.
  • All fuel gas conditioning installations are turnkey, complete with modular installation structures, full control panels, sensor arrays, and certified explosion-proof electric enclosures.
  • Easily integrated via proven modular technology, fuel gas conditioning systems from CAS and MetWeld have a small footprint and require minimal modification to a plant’s standard processes.
These fuel gas conditioning heaters from Cast Aluminum Solutions can heat turbine natural gas, to optimize temperatures and reduce moisture content.
With these natural gas fuel conditioning heaters from CAS, supply pipes are warmed, for combustion optimization.

CAS partners with MetWeld International on fuel gas conditioning projects. MetWeld is a leading power systems integrator.

Next-generation power generation requires next-generation fuel conditioning. With CAS and MetWeld technology, fuel in-feeds are heated to optimal operational temperatures, preventing cold-start inefficiencies. These turnkey arrays work to decrease moisture levels, abbreviate ramp times, and increase overall turbine performance.

Natural Metering & Pressure Reduction Station Heaters

Natural gas equipment heaters from Cast Aluminum Solutions optimize equipment functionality and provide protection against cooling & condensate.

To remove moisture, these gas conditioning heaters from Cast Aluminum Solutions are sold to turbine customers in power plant markets.
  • CAST-X Heaters can be installed wherever pressure reduction leads to temperature drop and condensation. This includes sampling & test outlets at metering stations, as well as pipeline pressure reduction stations. CAST-X Heaters are also effective in heating pilot tube gas streams, which may run throughout a system to maintain warmth, preventing the formation of damaging frost or condensation on valves, seals, and small components.
  • With CAST-X Heaters, all heated media is isolated in seamless stainless steel flow-tubes: gases have no contact with heating elements or any other components within the heater. This is an important safety feature, enabling the CAST-X design to heat flammable and explosive media.
  • CAST-X Heaters are compatible with continuous high-pressure operation.
  • Explosion-proof electric enclosures (NEMA 7 and ATEX) are standard options.
  • Available from .5 up to 60 kW, CAST-X Heaters can be configured to meet any worldwide voltage.
  • CAST-X Heaters are easily integrated and use standard fittings and controls (PID, PLC, etc.).
With these CAST-X inline heaters, customers remove LNG humidity and optimize CNG temperatures, as proven here with data from Cast Aluminum Solutions.

The CAST-X 4000 and CAST-X 3000 are suitable for most natural gas metering or pressure reduction stations installations. These models can be installed in-line and controlled via standard PLC or PID controls. Our CAST-X Heaters are compatible with high-pressure operations and have explosion-proof electric components, making integration a worry-free experience.

De-Icing of liquid natural gaslines is provided by this CAST-X Heater product, made by Cast Aluminum Solutions to prevent Joule-Thomson cooling.

Many natural gas processes are negatively impacted by the Joule-Thomson effect. Pressure drops result in lower gas temperatures, leading to condensation in the gas stream. This moisture, which can sometimes freeze, is detrimental to the performance of precision components and critical processes. When properly integrated, CAST-X Heaters help to optimize process outcomes by minimizing gas-stream cooling and reducing moisture.

Dry Gas Seal Heat Exchangers

Our larger CAST-X Circulation Heaters have design features compatible with integration into dry gas seal systems for centrifugal compressors and turbo-expanders.

These certified high-quality dry gas seal CAST-X heaters are made by Cast Aluminum Solutions in Batavia, IL and feature high pressure capacity.
  • Gas streams for dry gas seals must be approximately 99.97% moisture-free to prevent costly, catastrophic seal failures: this can be accomplished with an appropriately-sized CAST-X Heater, heating the stream to well above dew point, never allowing the Joule-Thomson effect to take hold.
  • CAST-X Heaters are capable of safely heating flammable media, making them safe for situations where the seal gas stream consists of a flammable fluid originating from the primary process stream.
  • Heated gases are isolated in the heater’s stainless steel flow-tube: media has no contact with heating elements or any other components within the heater (an important explosion prevention feature).
  • CAST-X Heaters can be manufactured to withstand up to 10,000 psi (689 bar).
  • All CAST-X Heaters feature a very compact footprint compared to much larger heat exchangers.
  • CAST-X Heaters are easily controlled to match output temps with flow-rates and compressor RPM.
  • CAST-X 3000 or 4000 units are usually recommended (depending on compressor size) for pipeline booster compressors, CO2 re-injection compressors, and natural gas processing plant compressors.
These dry gas seal heating products from Cast Aluminum Solutions are XP certified explosion proof Class 1, sold as CAST-X Heaters to customers worldwide.

Centrifugal compressors are expensive and complex machines. Dry gas seal moisture can mean a catastrophic failure and costly rebuild. If that’s a chance you’d prefer not to take, speak to the CAS Team about our heating solutions for dry gas seal systems.

This inline gas seal heater for turbo compressors is called CAST-X, which is high pressure compatible and made by Cast Aluminum Solutions of Batavia, IL.

The moisture generated by J-T cooling can affect dry gas seals used in turbo-expanders and centrifugal compressors. Seal gases must be 99.97% moisture-free, achieved through heating to at least 20°C above dew-point, all while controlling for particulates above 10 microns. CAST-X can help you meet these stringent parameters, with a smaller footprint compared to traditional heat exchangers.

Heaters for Gas Transport, Testing and Dispensing Applications

CAST-X Circulation Heaters are designed to safely heat natural gas products for a wide range of transport and downstream applications. These versatile heaters, readily-available in multiple sizes, work to alleviate many of the issues caused by pressure drop, moisture formation, and phase change.

Mobile natural gas dispensing heaters for CNG and LNG vaporizing on trailers are available from Cast Aluminum Solutions.
  • CAST-X Heaters are compatible with skid-based systems tasked with accomplishing natural gas adsorption, drying, and dew point control operations. These high-pressure-compatible heaters prevent J-T cooling to help assure gas streams are within operating parameters (for pressure, temperature, and moisture content) of compressors, dispensing devices, and storage equipment.
  • In gas sampling applications, such as those conducted prior to shipping or large-scale transfers, CAST-X Heaters (1-5 kW) are very effective as ‘flash vaporizers,’ gasifying small samples for purity testing.
  • High-kilowatt CAST-X Heaters can be deployed to gasify liquid propane or CNG in off-loading and transfer processes. ie: tank-to-tank transfers (where destination tank is gaseous-state storage), or where the transfer process generates significant Joule-Thomson cooling that must be controlled.
  •  CAST-X Heaters are available in 6 base sizes, with total power ranging from .5 to over 60 kW.
  • A variety of flow-tube dimensions are available (OD and wall), in single and dual-tube formats.
CAST-X LNG dispensing heaters for natural gas transfer warming and tank vaporizing applications are made by Cast Aluminum Solutions.

Many natural gas filling stations require the media to be heated from approximately -40°F (-40°C) to 75°F (24°C), when dispensing to the vehicle. Active heating with a CAST-X Heater safely accomplishes this Delta-T, even under high pressures as high as 10,000 psi (6990 bar).

Using this CAST-X brand LNG vaporizer product, supplied by Cast Aluminum Solutions, evaporation of natural gas is easy.

As the ‘fuel of the future,’ OEMs and processors have strong expectations for natural gas market growth. Working with an experienced partner has never been more important, and CAS has a 30-year history of developing high-performance heaters for natural gas processing, transport, and dispensing.

Soil Analysis & Mud Testing Heaters

Our cast-in heaters are well-suited for core sampling and soil testing applications, where retort instrument heating & distillation of sub-surface material is required.

This CAST-X heater product for soil analysis and drilling mud evaluation is manufactured by Cast Aluminum Solutions with Hazardous Location Certification.
  • When configured with the appropriate power profile and flow-tube format, CAST-X Circulation Heaters are well-suited for soil analysis and core testing applications and are compatible with standard petroleum, natural gas, and contaminant test protocols.
  • CAST-X Circulation Heaters have a ‘no contact design’: heated materials are isolated in stainless steel flow-tubes, never contacting the heating element or any other components within the heater. The isolated flow-path allows for the safe heating of media containing flammable hydrocarbons. Because soil samples never contact the heating element, coking and dried debris are less of an issue compared to traditional heating methods.
  • CAST-X’s high thermal mass guarantees consistent temperatures. Process variations are easily compensated for via integration with PLC control systems; operating temperature feedback is accomplished via thermocouples located deep within the heater core.
  • Certified ATEX and NEMA 7 explosion-proof terminal enclosure are standard options.
  • CAST-X Heaters are mounted vertically, allowing flow-tubes to self-drain.