Across the UK pre-heating is currently undertaken by aging, inefficient water bath heaters, or where such equipment has been replaced, with boilers which work on similar principles. There has been minimal technological development or assessment of alternative pre-heating equipment and associated operating systems in the UK over the last twenty years.

The existing systems used for pre-heating gas generally rely on outdated technology. Water bath heaters are the best example of an outdated technology and as such, when these are replaced modern gas fired boilers and plate heat exchangers are installed. However, even this solution does not consider the possible use of renewable technologies such as biomass, ground source heat pumps, solar heating to name a few.

Benefits

NGN will own all of the research carried out and will be able to use the study to base future pre-heating designs on PRI’s these will be shared with other GDN’s should they wish. Potentially we will be able to roll out renewable technologies applicable to pre-heating across the entire network. The recommendations of this report will calculate the benefits in terms of carbon savings per annum. This will reduce the carbon footprint of the company. Each site where pre-heating systems are upgraded will reduce the number of incidents due to younger equipment and improved controls.