ABSTRACT
Process industries encompass the production of a wide range of p ro d u c ts like fuels (e.g., oil and n a tu ra l gas), glass, metals (e.g., steel and aluminum), minerals (e.g., refractories, bricks, and ceramics), and power, to name a few. The treatment and disposal of waste materials is another example of a process industry. In this book, only a few of these are considered and are briefly discussed in this chapter. Typical process heating operations are shown in Table 1.1. They include fluid heating (common in petroleum refining and chemical manufacturing) and thermal oxidation.1 The main focus of this book is
on the hydrocarbon, petrochemical, power generation, and thermal oxidation industries.
