In the large scheme of your manufacturing facility, capable industrial burners can be invaluable whether you are producing heat, chemicals, or providing steam for other industrial uses. Consider some of the direct costs associated with both oil and gas burners. One question that plant managers are always faced with is to which is more cost effective oil burners or gas burners?
Both oil burners and gas burners are critical components of boiler burners and heating burners in a variety of industries. However, relative costs, efficiency, and environmental impact of oil and gas burners can vary greatly. In this comprehensive industrial burner cost comparison, we will help dissect the cost differences between oil and gas burner applications to help you with the decision for your plant.
The Role and Importance of Industrial Burners
Industrial heating burners are foundational in the operation of boilers, furnaces, and process heaters. They convert fuel into usable heat energy in a controlled manner for production processes that require consistent performance. Industrial burners typically operate over long durations, 24/7 in heavy industrial applications, and due to the long duration of run-time, the type of burner can significantly determine fuel costs, maintenance costs, and overall operating costs.
Oil Burners: Reliability with Higher Running Costs
Industries without a consistent natural gas supply often use oil burners. Typically, oil burners are highly rated for their thermal output, and they offer reliable performance, even under tough conditions. That said there are several significant trade-offs when considering the oil burner efficiency:
- Cost of Oil Burners: The initial investment is less than gas systems, but long-term costs are more due to the costs of fuel fluctuating.
- Efficiency: Oil has combustion efficiency significantly lower than gas, which means heat loss.
- Maintenance: The burning of oil produces soot and residue, which requires more maintenance on heating burners to maintain performance.
In areas that do not have a robust gas pipeline, oil remains a very viable choice, but its volatility in regards to price and higher maintenance attract many facilities away from lower longevity and to lower cost options.
Gas Burners: Efficiency and Sustainability
Gas burners are being viewed as the standard in more modern industries due to their cleaner, and more efficient combustion particularly in countries with consistent gas infrastructure.
For plants looking to optimize performance and control costs, gas burners usually provide a better return on investment.
- Cost comparison between industrial burners: Gas burners tend to have a higher upfront cost if piping is included. In areas that do not have constant gas pipelines, oil still represents a large option but is variable in cost, has extreme maintenance, and is not considered a long-term savings option
- Energy efficiency: Gas burners provide a combustion efficiency of 90-95%. This means that more of your energy goes to providing you usable energy, resulting in lower energy operating cost.
- Cleaner Operating: There are fewer emissions considering gas and no soot requirements. This translates to significant time savings on your boiler burners running longer with cleaning plate and part replacement.
For plants that are trying to optimize operation while controlling costs, gas burners appeal to have the higher ROI.
Volatility of Fuel Pricing
One of the most decisive factors in oil vs. gas burners is the price of fuel. Oil is often subject to shifts based on global markets. Oil often increases at a rapid price, and gas prices tend to remain gentle floats. For those industries burning heat at a massive scale, they can consider a more reliable flat pricing in their cost structure and forecasting. Users of oil often set financial forecasts based on past performance, and it’s not unusual for oil prices to shift with great uncertainty.
Energy Efficiency units compared:
When looking at energy efficiency burners, the numbers are clear:
- Oil burners being around 80–85% overall efficient allow reasonably more heat energy to exit the combustion process.
- Gas burners can achieve efficiency rates of 90−95% and are, therefore, generally less expensive per unit of heat generated.
While the numerical value may appear small on paper, at an industrial scale, this efficiency can save millions of dollars per year.
Maintenance and Life Span of the System
There are costs associated with oil burners besides the fuel. Because of the deposit left behind by oil combustion, industries that use oil systems must expend more time, labor, and resources to clean and maintain the system. This creates both direct costs and downtime to be considered.
Gas burners clean burning and leave virtually no residue behind. This leads to minimal wear and maintenance on industrial burners and boilers, which will lead to improved reliability, and therefore life span of equipment. In industries where operation time is critical, gas burners present an evident advantage.
Environmental Considerations
More and more, industries are also factoring environmental impact into the fuel they choose. Natural gas generates less greenhouse gas and almost no particulate matter compared to oil. Gas burners align more closely with the sustainability goals of plants that are looking to decrease emissions or in plants with strict emissions mission policies.
Changing from oil to gas can also help to improve a company’s public image, showing a dedication to being greener while still providing the same performance.
Choosing the Right Burner for Your Facility
The choice between oil burners and gas burners will depend on factors such as:
- Fuel Availability – If natural gas pipelines are readily available the cost difference in fuel will often make gas the most economical choice.
- Long term operational costs – Facilities that are looking to lower energy costs over time are more likely to encounter savings with gas since it operates more efficiently.
- Maintenance – If your facility has limited maintenance resources to carry out numerous preventative regular maintenance tasks, you may prefer gas since it will require less operational effort and be “cleaner”.
- Environmental considerations – Companies that have sustainability goals will find that gas is the greener option.
- Flexibility – Oil can be a good option still for remote locations with no access to natural gas or for areas that do not have dependable gas supply.
Industrial Burner Cost Comparison:
Oil burners: lower cost of entry, higher cost of fuel, higher frequency maintenance, moderate efficiency.
Gas burners: higher cost of entry, lower cost of fuel, minimal maintenance, greater efficiency.
When looked out over the long term horizon, gas burners are likely to be more cost-effective industrial burners for most facilities.
Long Run Investment
At Noble Associates, we are experts at helping industries optimize their heating burners and boiler burners. We implement rigorous maintenance practices and optimization techniques to ensure your systems are being operated at maximum efficiencies whether you are using oil or gas.As a leading steam boiler supplier in Pakistan, we help by extending the life of your industrial systems. Increasing reliability and reducing downtime. Reducing operating costs with efficiencies based upgrades.
When discussing oil vs gas burners, gas is often the smarter long run investment due to its efficiencies, lower operating costs, and ultimately the environmental impact. Oil has a value for districts where gas may not be readily available, however for most industries looking to reduce costs, gas is the most reliable option.
Cost effectiveness, in the end, is achieved with the right burner and proper maintenance. With Noble Associates, you can be assured that your industrial heating burners will operate at peak efficiency, which equals immediate energy and maintenance savings and provide long-lasting reliability.
