The US Department of Energy initiated the Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) which is working to decrease the country’s carbon footprint by increasing industrial energy efficiency.

1. Industrial Process Heating Best Practices per DOE
The US Department of Energy initiated the Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) which is working to
decrease the country’s carbon footprint by increasing industrial energy efficiency. This program is doing
research in and providing energy efficient suggestions for companies by industry and by technology. The
industries the ITP works with are: aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining,
petroleum refining, and steel. The technologies the ITP has been evaluating are: boilers & steam
systems, combustion, compressed air, distributed energy/combined heat & power, energy intensive
processes, fuel & feedstock flexibility, information & communications technology/data centers, naturals
for industrial use, motors, fans & pumps, nanomanufacturing, process heating, sensors & automation.
Today, we’re going to focus on combustion/process heating. The ITP has put together “Best Practices”,
which reports research efforts and breakthroughs that offer the process heating industry significant
energy savings. The resources have been classified under: tip sheets, educational articles, technical
publications, and one very indigenous tool, PHAST (Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool). These
resources/tools can be find at: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/bestpractices/process_heat.html
The tip sheets are meant to help engineers, technicians, and other plant workers better understand,
analyze, and incorporate energy saving techniques into the operation of their process heating
equipment. Tips on how to check air to fuel ratios, furnace pressure controllers, and how to reduce
waste heat are some of the sheets found in this section of the site. These sheets explain how altering
different parts of the system can affect production volumes, temperature, energy costs, carbon foot-
print, and other process variables. Each of the tip sheets uses lucid examples and elaborates with graphs
and illustrations.
The articles listed on the site are brief, easy-to-read papers centered around the topic of process heat, in
general. They discuss the process heating goals of the ITP, describe what process heating is and
where/when it is used in industry, seven ways process heating systems can be optimized, and gives an
example of how one company cut process heating costs.
The technical publications are meant to be read by those who deal process heating on a regular basis.
The aforementioned tip sheets and articles are simplified papers which have been extracted from these
original, longer technical publications. Ranging from ‘Waste Heat Recovery and its Relevant Implications’
to ‘Roadmap to Improve Process Heating Technology’, these papers shed light on the technical research,
results, and future research goals that have been done to improve process heating in industry.
Supported by facts, tables and graphs from research & experiments on equipment across every

2. conceivable industry, these papers give the greatest analytical insight on the process heating tips/
recommendations given by ITP.
Stelter & Brinck is one company that implements the suggestions of the DOE in their process heat
equipment and combustion field services. For more information on S&B’s process heat equipment or
services please call 513-367-900 or visit www.stelterbrinck.com
Keywords: process heating, energy savings, best practices, Department of Energy, Stelter, Brinck,
Combustion, technology, process heat system