Process heat tracing

Process heat tracing installation and upgrades for Alberta industrial sites: temperature maintenance, controls and monitoring, hazardous-location work and commissioning.

Beyond freeze protection

On an industrial site, heat tracing is often part of the process. Lines carrying heavy oils, chemicals, slurries or water must stay above a set temperature so product flows, does not crystallize, and instruments read correctly. Instrument tubing and impulse lines need it too, or a frozen sensing line can give a false reading.

We work with your engineering team or a heat trace designer to install, upgrade and commission process systems in plants, terminals, water treatment facilities and fabrication shops around the Edmonton region.

Typical traced equipment includes product and utility lines, pump casings, control valves, instrument enclosures, analyzer sample lines, tank nozzles and safety showers and eyewash lines that must never freeze. Each has different heat loss and access needs, and the installation has to suit all of them.

Cable and control selection

Process work uses a wider range of cable than building freeze protection. The choice depends on maintain temperature, maximum exposure temperature (such as during steam-out), circuit length and the area classification.

Controls range from simple line-sensing thermostats to electronic controllers and heat trace panels that monitor current, ground-fault leakage and temperature on every circuit and report alarms to your control system. For critical lines, monitoring is the difference between knowing about a failure in minutes and finding out from a plugged line.

Hazardous locations

Many process areas are classified as hazardous locations under the Canadian Electrical Code. Every component there, from cable and connection kits to junction boxes and controllers, must be certified for the area, and the cable's maximum sheath temperature must stay below the area's temperature code.

We install to the design and the area classification drawings, use certified kits made up to instructions, and document what was installed where. Changes to cable type or length are checked against the design before they happen, not after.

Upgrades and energy savings

Many older plants still run process heat tracing on simple mechanical thermostats, or with no control at all, energized from fall to spring. Upgrading to line-sensing electronic control or a monitored heat trace panel can cut energy use substantially while improving reliability, because each circuit runs only as much as its pipe needs.

A monitored system also turns heat tracing from a hidden risk into something your operators can see. Alarms for low temperature, high temperature, ground-fault leakage and loss of current tell you which circuit needs attention before product stops flowing.

We can survey existing circuits, identify the ones with the highest energy use or failure history, and propose a phased upgrade that fits your budget and turnaround schedule.

• Circuit-by-circuit survey and testing
• Controller and panel options with pros and cons
• Integration with your control system alarms

Installation, testing and records

Good process installations are mostly about care and documentation. We test cable before installation, after installation and after insulation, record the values against each circuit, and mark circuits on the isometrics so they can be found later.

• Cable fixed per the design, with extra length at valves, pumps, flanges and supports.
• Every power connection, tee and end seal made with the listed kit.
• Insulation coordinated with the insulation contractor and kept dry.
• Circuit loads checked against panel and breaker ratings, including cold start-up.
• Commissioning records and as-built drawings handed over.

Cost on process work depends on the length and complexity of piping, area classification, controls and monitoring scope, scaffold or lift access, and whether work happens during a turnaround or while the plant runs. We are happy to plan around a shutdown window.

Questions we hear