Econotherm has landed a landmark contract exceeding €3 million to supply three fired heater air pre-heaters to a Rotterdam-based refinery, marking the company’s largest order since its founding in 2007.

The project is part of the refinery’s broader greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction initiatives and will feature Econotherm’s proprietary heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) technology.

The contract will run through 2026 and 2027, with engineering and heat pipe manufacturing carried out at Econotherm’s Bridgend fabrication shop, and final assembly completed in the Netherlands.

This deal increases the number of Econotherm air pre-heaters in the customer’s global refining portfolio to seven, and marks the first deployment of heat pipe-based units in a European refinery.

The combined duty of the three units is 21.9 MW, delivering an estimated annual GHG reduction of 35,126 tCO2e. At the current EU carbon trading price of €72.96 per ton, this equates to roughly €2.56 million per year in carbon credits.

“The main selection criteria was the ability to avoid acid condensation given that the refinery will be switching from natural gas to low joule gas in the next few years,” the company noted. Additional factors included a heat exchanger type resilient to single tube or plate failures, reducing maintenance requirements and process outages.

“This latest contract demonstrates how refiners are turning to new technologies that can meet their technical requirements while offering additional advantages over the well-established equipment types,” said Warren Chung, Global Product Director of Econotherm.

Mark Boocock, Chairman of Econotherm, added: “Econotherm’s close cooperation with petroleum refineries has resulted in HPHEs being recognized as a valid technology type in API Standard 560 – Fired Heaters for General Refinery Service, which is a major development.”