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What Is Waste Heat — And Can Your Facility Get Some of It Back?

Every industrial heating process produces waste heat. It’s unavoidable. The question is not whether it exists, but whether any of it can be put back to work.

Waste heat management covers three distinct activities: waste heat reduction, waste heat recycling, and waste heat recovery. Understanding the difference between these three is important for setting realistic expectations about what’s achievable.

The Three Categories

Waste heat reduction means reducing the generation of waste heat in the first place — through better insulation, tighter seals, lower exhaust temperatures, and reduced air infiltration. This is the category that overlaps directly with heat containment, and it’s generally the first step before pursuing recovery.

Waste heat recycling means using waste heat within the same system it came from. The most common example the sourcebook gives is preheating combustion air using heat recovered from the exhaust gases of the same burner. The sourcebook notes that this type of heat recycling can reduce energy use or energy intensity by as much as 25%.

Waste heat recovery means capturing waste heat from one process and using it in a different system — for example, using hot flue gases from a high-temperature process to generate steam or heat water for a lower-temperature process elsewhere in the facility. Payback periods typically ranging from one-half year to five years, with heat recovery of 10% to 75% of the available waste heat depending on the technology.

Where Waste Heat Comes From

The sourcebook provides a useful table of industrial waste heat sources and their temperature ranges. Furnace or heating system exhaust gases run between 600°F and 2,000°F. Gas turbine exhaust runs 900°F to 1,100°F. Hot surfaces — including uninsulated pipe and equipment surfaces — run between 150°F and 600°F. Even steam leaks and condensate return systems represent waste heat streams worth evaluating.

The Right Order of Operations

The sourcebook is explicit about the sequence: reduce waste heat first, then recycle it within the same system, then consider recovery to other systems. This matters because the economics of a heat recovery project depend on how much waste heat is actually available. Improving insulation and reducing air infiltration first may reduce the magnitude of the recovery opportunity — but it also reduces what the system has to generate in the first place, which is the better outcome.

Reducing hot surface losses through insulation is the first step in any waste heat management program. UniTherm’s removable insulation jackets, blankets, and covers help address heat loss from equipment surfaces, piping, and exhaust components — the foundational step before more complex recovery technologies are evaluated.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

Source: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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Air-to-Fuel Ratio: The Adjustment That Costs Nothing and Saves Real Money

Of all the improvements available for fuel-based process heating systems, controlling the air-to-fuel ratio may be the most accessible. It doesn’t require new equipment or significant capital. It requires understanding how combustion works and making sure your system is operating within the right parameters.

The core principle is straightforward: burning too much fuel relative to air wastes fuel. Burning too much air relative to fuel wastes energy by carrying it out of the system as hot exhaust.

How Combustion Efficiency Works

When a hydrocarbon fuel burns in air, the ideal condition — called stoichiometric combustion — consumes all the fuel with just enough oxygen to complete the reaction. In practice, stoichiometric operation isn’t achievable in most industrial burners because perfect mixing of fuel and oxidant would be required. Unburned hydrocarbons in the exhaust stream are both wasteful and potentially hazardous.

As a result, systems are designed to run with some excess air — typically around 3% according to the sourcebook — to ensure complete combustion. This small margin provides safety without significant energy penalty.

The Problem with Too Much Excess Air

Excess air beyond what’s needed for complete combustion must be heated along with the combustion products, and all of that heat ends up in the exhaust gases rather than in the product.

For systems that have drifted out of calibration, reducing excess air to the appropriate level can produce immediate, measurable fuel savings without any other changes.

What to Monitor

The sourcebook identifies practical indicators that suggest the air-to-fuel ratio needs attention: excess oxygen in furnace exhaust gases (indicating too much excess air), unstable flame behavior (indicating improper fuel/air control), and linkage conditions that cause poor control of the fuel/air mixture across the range of operating conditions.

Monitoring exhaust gas oxygen content — using an oxygen analyzer or portable combustion analyzer — is the standard method for verifying that the system is operating at the correct ratio.

While air-to-fuel optimization is a fuel-based system improvement, it works in combination with other measures including heat containment. A well-insulated system transfers more heat to the product per unit of fuel burned, which means the gains from proper burner calibration and proper insulation compound each other. UniTherm’s insulation solutions address the containment side of that equation.

For more on combustion optimization, see the DOE’s Process Heating Tip Sheet series, available at energy.gov/eere/amo.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

Source: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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Removable Pipe and Valve Insulation: Solving the Access Problem in Industrial Facilities

Every industrial facility has piping systems that carry hot fluids, steam, or gases. And most of those systems have lengths of pipe, valves, and flanges that are uninsulated — not because facility managers don’t understand the energy loss, but because traditional insulation creates a maintenance problem.

When you need to access a valve for inspection or repair, you have to remove whatever insulation is covering it. With hard insulation, that means cutting and disposing of material. The replacement costs time and money. Do it a few times and the insulation often just stays off.

Pipe and Component Insulation

The Department of Energy’s identifies poor insulation on piping and ductwork as a recognized source of energy loss. Surfaces such as piping and ductwork that have poor or no insulation are sources of energy loss that are “often overlooked” in process heating assessments.

This is common precisely because the losses are diffuse and continuous rather than dramatic. A valve loses heat quietly, hour after hour, day after day. The impact is real but easy to ignore.

What Removable Insulation Covers Actually Do

Removable insulation covers for valves, flanges, and pipe components are engineered to be installed and removed without tools or specialized labor. They’re typically made from high-temperature-rated materials, stitched or sealed to fit specific component configurations, and secured with straps, lacing, or fasteners that allow for quick removal.

The key advantage over traditional insulation is that the covers are designed from the start to be removed and reinstalled. The insulation material doesn’t get damaged in the process, so the cover remains effective after repeated use.

UniTherm’s IsoCovers are removable insulation covers for valves and flanges. They’re available in standard sizes through the UniTherm shop and can be custom-manufactured for non-standard component configurations. Visit unitherm.com/pipe-and-components for the full range, or contact UniTherm to discuss a custom solution for your system.

Industries That Use Them

Removable pipe and valve insulation is used in oil and gas, power generation, chemical processing, food processing, marine applications, and anywhere else that high-temperature piping systems require regular maintenance access. The ROI case is generally straightforward: the energy cost of an uninsulated valve running continuously at operating temperature is often large enough to recover the cost of the cover within a single heating season.

For facilities in cold climates, there’s an additional benefit: reducing surface heat loss can help maintain consistent process temperatures in areas where ambient conditions vary seasonally.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

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Insulating Plastics Processing Equipment: How to Really Cut Your Facility’s Costs.

Plastics processing equipment, injection molding machines, extruders, blow molding equipment — operate at sustained high temperatures. The heating zones along a barrel or nozzle are running continuously, and a significant portion of that heat radiates outward into the surrounding work area rather than staying in the process where it belongs.

This is a straightforward heat containment problem of the kind identified in the DOE’s process heating sourcebook, and it has a straightforward solution: insulating plastic processing equipment keeps the heat in the barrel and out of the shop floor.

What’s Actually Happening Without Insulation

An uninsulated barrel on a plastics processing machine loses heat through radiation and convection from its surface. The control system compensates by running the heaters longer or more frequently to maintain the set temperature. More heater activity means more energy consumed, more wear on heating elements, and a warmer ambient environment around the machine.

The DOE sourcebook notes that improving insulation on process heating equipment reduces the amount of energy needed to perform a given heating task, reduces thermal stress on system components, and can improve consistency and product quality. All three of those benefits apply to plastics processing equipment.

The Case for Removable Insulation on Barrels and Nozzles

Permanent insulation on a plastics processing barrel is impractical. Operators need access to heating zones for inspection, thermocouple replacement, and maintenance. Fixed insulation that has to be cut away and replaced every time someone needs to check a heater band is not a workable solution.

Removable insulation jackets address this directly. They’re designed to fit specific equipment configurations, attach securely during production, and come off quickly when access is needed. The insulation itself is protected from damage during removal, so it can be reinstalled and reused.

UniTherm’s UniVest® insulation jackets are designed specifically for plastics processing equipment — barrels, nozzles, dies, and related components. They’re engineered for the temperature ranges and access requirements typical of injection molding, extrusion, and blow molding operations. Available through the UniTherm shop at shop.unitherm.com.

What to Expect in Terms of Results

While results vary by equipment type, temperature setpoint, and ambient conditions, published energy studies have documented meaningful reductions in heater band energy consumption when insulation jackets are added to plastics processing equipment. In addition to direct energy savings, facilities often report reduced ambient heat in work areas around the machines — a worker comfort and safety benefit that the DOE sourcebook also identifies as a legitimate benefit of insulation improvements.

UniTherm maintains an Energy Study Library on its website with documented results from insulation applications. Visit unitherm.com/media/energy-study-library for case data.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

Source: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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Heat Containment: Why Insulation Is Usually the First Step in Any Efficiency Program

The Department of Energy’s process heating sourcebook divides efficiency improvements into five categories. Of those five, heat containment stands out as the one most facilities can act on quickly, without major capital investment and without interrupting production.

Heat containment means reducing energy losses to the surrounding environment. Every surface that runs hotter than ambient temperature is a source of those losses. The hotter the surface and the larger the area, the more energy is leaving the system and adding to your fuel bill.

What the DOE Sourcebook Says About Insulation

The sourcebook is direct about what poor insulation costs: “Poor insulation might reduce a process heating system’s efficiency, thereby increasing the amount of energy needed to perform a given process heating task. In addition to an increased cost for energy, the system is exposed to higher stress, which can accelerate wear and subsequently lead to more frequent breakdowns. Other side effects can be reduced product quality and increased maintenance.”

That last point is important. Insulation isn’t just about energy savings. When equipment runs hotter than it needs to because heat isn’t being retained properly, the surrounding components experience greater thermal stress. Over time, that means shorter service life and more downtime.

Where Insulation Applies

Insulation opportunities in a process heating system typically include: furnace and oven walls, doors, and ceilings; pipes, valves, and flanges carrying hot fluids, gases, or steam; ductwork connecting heating equipment to downstream processes; heating barrels, nozzles, and dies on plastics processing equipment; and exhaust components that carry high-temperature gases away from the process.

Each of these surfaces loses heat at a rate determined by the temperature difference between the surface and the surrounding air, the surface area, and the effectiveness of any existing insulation.

Removable vs. Permanent Insulation

For some surfaces — furnace walls, fixed ductwork — permanent insulation makes sense. But for components that require regular maintenance access, permanent insulation creates a practical problem: every time someone needs to access the valve, flange, or connection, they have to remove and replace insulation that wasn’t designed to come off.

Removable and reusable insulation covers solve that problem. They’re designed to go on and come off quickly, without damaging the insulation or the equipment underneath. This makes them practical for valves, flanges, fittings, and other components where access is part of the normal maintenance routine.

UniTherm’s insulation blankets and jackets are built specifically for this use case. UniVest® covers for plastics processing equipment, IsoCovers for pipes and valves, and custom insulation blankets for other industrial components — all removable, reusable, and engineered for high-temperature environments. Browse the full line at unitherm.com.

A Simple Place to Start

If you haven’t done a surface temperature audit recently, that’s a good first step. Walk the system with an infrared thermometer. Note which surfaces are running significantly above ambient temperature. Prioritize the largest, hottest surfaces — those represent the biggest ongoing losses. Then ask whether those surfaces are accessible for maintenance. If they are, removable insulation is worth a look.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

Source: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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Why Fixing One Thing at a Time Isn’t Enough: The Systems Approach to Process Heating

When a facility decides to improve energy efficiency, the instinct is often to target the most obvious problem and fix it. That’s understandable — but according to the Department of Energy’s process heating sourcebook, fixing individual components in isolation often misses a larger opportunity and can even produce misleading results.

The DOE Sourcebook recommends what it calls a systems approach: a top-down review of how all the components of a process heating system perform and interact together. The goal is to understand the whole before optimizing the parts.

What a Systems Approach Actually Looks Like

The sourcebook describes the systems approach as a process that starts with creating process flow diagrams — visual maps of how materials and energy move through the system. This gives engineers and facility managers a “bird’s-eye view” of the entire process and allows them to rank components by their efficiency impact.

Importantly, it also reveals how changing one component affects others. Here’s an example. tuning burners reduce energy use, but it will also make the gains from flue gas heat recovery somewhat smaller than they would have been before the burners were tuned. Without the systems perspective, you might over-estimate the benefit of the second improvement.

Start with the Data You Have

A systems approach requires data. Mapping energy flows through a system highlights the confidence in existing data and identifies what additional measurements are needed. In other words, the process of analyzing the system reveals gaps that need to be filled before improvements can be properly evaluated.

Analysis doesn’t have to be complicated. In many cases, it starts with temperature measurements at key surfaces, monitoring of exhaust gas composition, and basic tracking of fuel use per unit of output.

Individual Components Still Matter

The systems approach doesn’t replace component-level analysis — it informs it. After the top-down review identifies which components have the highest efficiency impact, those components are then analyzed in detail. The US Department of Energy sourcebook describes this as an iterative process: the component’s improved performance is fed back into the system model to determine true gains when interactions between components are taken into account.

Insulation is a good example of where this matters. Adding insulation to a furnace wall reduces surface heat loss. But it also changes the thermal environment inside the furnace, which may affect heat transfer to the product, which may affect how the control system responds. A complete analysis accounts for all of those effects.

When you’re ready to take stock of heat losses across your facility, UniTherm’s team can help you think through where removable insulation solutions apply — from plastics processing equipment to piping systems to exhaust components. A systems view often reveals insulation opportunities that aren’t obvious from looking at individual pieces of equipment.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

Source: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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5 Ways Heat Escapes Your Industrial System — And How to Stop It

Most industrial facilities have a heat loss problem they can’t see. Heat is leaving the system continuously through walls, pipes, openings, and idling equipment. Losing heat means losing energy, causing the machines in your process to work harder, raising the ambient temperature, decreasing efficiency and even shortening equipment life span. The solution starts by understanding where heat escapes your system.

The U.S. Department of Energy identifies the major sources of energy loss in fuel-based systems. In this article, we’ll cover each source and explain the most efficient solution to help you solve this problem.

1. Furnace and Heater Walls

Hot surfaces like furnaces, dryers, and heat exchangers continuously lose energy through both radiation and convection. This is sometimes called wall loss or surface loss. Unfortunately, it is present any time the equipment is operating, even when it’s holding temperature between runs.

On it’s own this is not the worst heat loss issue, but when poor or degraded insulation on furnace walls goes unreplaced heat loss increases dramatically.

Per the US Department of Energy, poor insulation conditions are a key source of energy loss and often overlooked during routine maintenance reviews. Furnace walls, connected piping or ductwork are the most common areas for heat loss in this first category.

Fortunately the solution for this category is fairly simple; Regularly replacing insulation with insulation solutions, like those found on shop.unitherm.com, is a simple, cost effective fix.

2. Openings, Doors, and Seals

Every time a furnace door opens, heat escapes by radiation. Even closed doors with gaps and worn seals can allow radiant heat to escape. Radiation heat loss from openings is a specific category of loss which results from not having proper seals at doors used for material handling.

Checking and maintaining door seals regularly is a low-cost maintenance step that can reduce this loss meaningfully.

3. Flue and Exhaust Gases

For fuel-fired systems, exhaust gases carry a large portion of the heat energy out of the system. Flue gas losses are one of the largest sources of energy loss in fuel-based process heating. The higher the exhaust gas temperature, the more energy is being lost.

This is the category that waste heat recovery systems are designed to address — capturing heat from the exhaust stream and putting it back to work, either as preheated combustion air or for other process uses.

4. Piping and Ductwork Without Insulation

Hot piping, ductwork, and valves that run between the heating source and the process lose heat at every uninsulated foot. This is especially relevant in facilities where heated fluids, gases, or steam travel significant distances. Each uninsulated surface is a continuous energy drain.

UniTherm’s IsoCovers are removable insulation covers designed for pipes, valves, and flanges. They’re an effective, convenient, and low-cost way to address heat loss on piping components — and because they’re removable, they don’t interfere with maintenance access. Learn more at unitherm.com/pipe-and-components.

5. Idle and Low-Capacity Operation

Process heating systems have both fixed and variable losses. Variable losses depend on how much material is being heated. Fixed losses occur as long as the unit is operating, regardless of capacity. When a furnace sits idle between batches or runs at low capacity for extended periods, those fixed losses — wall heat, exhaust gases, radiation — continue accumulating without productive output to offset them.

Scheduling improvements that reduce idle time are one of the enabling technologies the DOE sourcebook identifies for improving overall system efficiency.

Where to Start

Not every facility has the same loss profile, and not every improvement requires capital investment. A walk-through of your system with attention to surface temperatures, insulation condition, and door or seal integrity can reveal opportunities quickly. If pipes, valves, or equipment surfaces are hot to the touch — or hot enough to be uncomfortable to stand near — that heat is money leaving your process.

For our standard removable insulation solutions, visit shop.unitherm.com.

To request a quote for a custom insulation solutions click here.

Source: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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Process Heating Efficiency: Why It Matters And What Most Facilities Are Missing

If you work in manufacturing, process heat is your largest energy cost. The worst part is you’re spending even more because of heat waste.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy process heating consumes more energy in U.S. manufacturing than any other single system. The number is striking: more than 7,000 Trillion Btu per year! That’s roughly 61% of all manufacturing on-site energy use. For individual facilities, the energy used for process heating typically accounts for 2% to 15% of total production costs.

Even a modest improvement in how efficiently your system generates, contains, and transfers heat can translate into real savings without changing your process. Let’s take a look at what process heating is, where it goes and how to utilize more of it.

What “Process Heating” Actually Covers

Process heating is broader than most people assume. It includes furnaces, ovens, kilns, dryers, and heaters used across industries from primary metals to plastics to food processing. It covers fuel-based systems, electric-based systems, and steam-based systems. Virtually any operation that requires controlled heat to transform a material falls under this umbrella.

Process heating operations, include forming, curing, drying, fluid heating, heat treating, and metals reheating. Each one has specific efficiency characteristics and specific opportunities for improvement.

Where the Energy Goes

A process heating system does not deliver all of its energy to the product. Heat escapes, whether that’s from furnace walls and openings, or with hot exhaust or flue gases, no can be 100 percent efficient. Despite that, there are still significant benefits to increasing process heat efficiency. By managing process heat, you can extend the life of your machines, increase overall output and reduce downtime.

The goal of any efficiency improvement program is not to eliminate all heat waste, but to reduce those losses and increase the share of energy that actually does useful work.

The Five Categories of Improvement

The DOE groups efficiency opportunities into five categories: heat generation, heat containment, heat transfer, waste heat recovery, and enabling technologies. These categories overlap in practical application, but they provide a useful framework for identifying where to start. Here’s a brief summary of each category:

  • Heat Generation: the process of producing heat energy. It happens when energy from sources like fuel, electricity, friction, or chemical reactions is converted into heat.
  • Heat Containment: the process of keeping heat within a specific area or system to reduce heat loss and maintain temperature. It is often achieved using insulation, barriers, or enclosed spaces.
  • Heat Transfer: the movement of heat energy from one object or area to another, moving from a hotter place to a cooler place.
  • Waste Heat Recovery: the process of capturing heat that would otherwise be lost from a system or process and reusing it for another purpose, improving energy efficiency and reducing energy costs.
  • Enabling Technologies: tools, equipment, and systems that help industrial processes use heat more effectively, reducing energy consumption, costs, and emissions while maintaining or improving performance.

Heat containment is the area where most facilities can make meaningful gains quickly and at relatively low cost. Poorly maintained or missing insulation allows heat to escape continuously, adding to energy costs every hour the system runs. Here’s a list of where insulation should be in your facility:

Process Heat Efficiency Opportunities:

  • Steam and condensate piping
  • Valves, flanges, and fittings
  • Boilers and boiler doors
  • Heat exchangers
  • Process tanks and vessels
  • Ovens, furnaces, and kilns
  • Ductwork carrying heated air or gases
  • Hot water piping and storage tanks
  • Turbines and associated equipment
  • Any surface operating at elevated temperatures where personnel protection or energy conservation is required
UniTherm Insulation Systems designs removable and reusable insulation jackets, blankets, and covers for industrial equipment — purpose-built for the heat containment challenge. Products like UniVest® for plastics processing equipment and IsoCovers® for pipes and valves help facilities reduce surface heat loss without requiring permanent modifications.

If you’re not sure where your facility stands, simply take stock of which surfaces and components are uninsulated or under-insulated. You may be surprised what you find.

Click here to browse our standard insulation solutions

Click here to recieve a quote for a custom insulation project.

Further reading: U.S. DOE, Improving Process Heating System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry (Third Edition), 2015.

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Insulate Pipes and Valves The Smart Way: Removable Covers vs. Conventional Lagging

Ask any maintenance team that has dealt with conventional pipe lagging — fiberglass, calcium silicate, foam glass — and you’ll hear the same complaints. It’s wet. It falls apart. Every time you need access to a valve or flange, you’re cutting it away and starting over. The insulation budget ends up being a recurring expense rather than a one-time installation.

Removable insulation covers offer a fundamentally different approach — and for valves, flanges, expansion joints, and other components that require periodic access, they make more operational and economic sense than any conventional alternative.

The Real Cost of Conventional Valve Insulation

Valves require annual maintenance, and annual maintenance requires removing traditional lagging. Besides the obvious cost of labor and disposal, other hidden costs inflate maintenance projects and increase project duration.

What you are risking with traditional lagging:

  • Labor cost to remove and dispose of the old insulation
  • Material cost to install new insulation after access
  • Downtime to complete the work and preform reinstallation.
  • Coverage gaps, moisture infiltration, and inadequate vapor barriers.

Across a large facility with hundreds of insulated valves and flanges, this adds up to a significant and largely avoidable maintenance burden.

How do ISOCOVERS Work?

UniTherm’s ISOCOVERS, a line of removable insulation jackets designed specifically for valves, flanges, strainers, steam traps, expansion joints, and other piping components solve the need for thermal insulation with the practical reality of meeting access requirements.

Covers come in standard sizes or custom fitted to your application. Closures use heavy-duty fastening systems — typically lacing wire or hook-and-loop — that allow removal and reinstallation in minutes without tools. Unlike lagging, ISOCOVERS maintain their shape even after repeated maintainence cycles, eliminating the need for replacement materials.

UniTherm selects it’s materials for your temperature range and environment: high-temperature wool or ceramic fiber for steam and high-temperature process applications, fiberglass or mineral wool for standard service, and specialized materials for cryogenic or corrosive environments.

Energy Performance: What to Expect

A bare valve in a steam system is a meaningful energy loss point. The surface area of a flanged valve can be many times that of the adjacent pipe. Not to mention, valves and fittings are often completely uninsulated precisely because of the access concern. ISOCOVERS eliminate that tradeoff.

Energy studies on steam systems with significant uninsulated valvework consistently show annual savings that justify cover costs many times over. For high-pressure steam system, retaining BTUs is crucial. BTUs lost to radial heat add up to massive costs across a system with dozens of uninsulated components.

When to Specify Removable Covers

  • Any valve, flange, or fitting that requires periodic access — which is essentially all of them
  • Steam systems with significant uninsulated valvework
  • High-temperature process piping where personnel protection from surface temperatures is a concern
  • Systems in environmentally sensitive locations where failed lagging creates housekeeping problems
  • New construction where avoiding the conventional lagging cycle from the start is the most cost-effective approach

→ Browse ISOcovers options

→ Request a custom quote.

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Why Flexible Covers Beat Rigid Systems in Oil & Gas Fire Protection Systems

When a fire breaks out near critical equipment in an oil and gas facility, passive fire protection (PFP) is the last line of defense between a containable incident and catastrophic failure. Unlike active systems (sprinklers, suppression agents, manual intervention) passive protection works automatically, with no power, no signals, and no human action required. It’s built into the equipment itself.

The question for most facility engineers isn’t whether to install PFP, but which system is best suited for the application. Rigid epoxy intumescent coatings have dominated the market for decades, but flexible insulation covers have gained significant ground — and for good reason.

The Problem with Rigid Coatings

Rigid PFP coatings are effective at what they do, but they come with real operational tradeoffs:

  • Inspection is difficult or impossible without damaging the coating. Corrosion under insulation (CUI) can go undetected for years.
  • Reapplication after maintenance is time-consuming and typically requires specialist contractors.
  • Rigid systems are unforgiving on complex geometries — flanges, valves, and irregular surfaces are hard to cover uniformly.
  • Thermal cycling and vibration cause cracking over time, compromising integrity.

Flexible PFP Covers: What Changes

UniTherm’s flexible passive fire protection covers are engineered with high-performance, fire-resistant materials and custom-fitted to the specific geometry of each application; whether that’s a wellhead, a valve cluster, a junction box, or a structural column near a flare stack.

Because the covers are removable, inspection is straightforward. Take the cover off, inspect the substrate, reinstall. No coatings to strip, no contractor mobilization, no waiting. This single feature dramatically changes the maintenance calculus for facilities operating under strict inspection protocols.

Flexible PFP covers also conform to complex shapes that rigid coatings struggle to address consistently. A valve with multiple protrusions, a pipe elbow, a bolted flange — all covered with purpose-built flexible jackets that maintain full contact and consistent protection thickness.

Certifications and Standards

Passive fire protection systems in oil and gas applications must meet rigorous standards, including UL 1709 (rapid rise fire testing), ASTM E119, and various offshore standards. UniTherm’s PFP covers are engineered and tested to applicable standards for the specific protection durations required by the installation — typically 30 to 120 minutes.

Spec compliance documentation, test certifications, and installation guides are available for each product line — a critical requirement for facilities operating under third-party safety audits or insurance requirements.

When to Consider Flexible PFP

  • New construction or greenfield installations,
  • Retrofit applications where existing rigid coatings are aging and inspection access is a concern
  • Equipment subject to frequent maintenance, inspection, or replacement
  • Complex geometries where uniform rigid coating application is difficult
  • Offshore or remote facilities where contractor mobilization for reapplication is costly

→ View UniTherm’s passive fire protection systems.

→ Connect with our Sales Team to receive a quote for your custom insulation project.

→ See Last Week’s Blog to Learn More about The ROI of Removable Insulation

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UniTherm Insulation Systems

711 Jones St.
Lewisville, TX 75057
Toll Free: 800.657.9542
Phone: 972.436.1401
Fax: 972.436.0112
info@unitherm.com