Standards
API 560 fundamentals
What the standard actually specifies, where engineering judgment lives in the gaps, and how "API 560 compliant" varies between suppliers.
Primer · Coming soon Engineering Library · Primers & References
Engineering thinking from inside Esteem.
Short-form engineering primers on fired heater design, revamp logic, standards work, and thermal engineering — written from the bench inside our Noida HQ. Plus a preserved legacy tutorial library and calculators for day-to-day work. This is not training content; it is the thinking we use.
Intent
Written by engineers, for engineers
Esteem is not a training company. We run an engineering business, and this library is a window into how we think — the primers, trade-offs, and decision frameworks our own engineers use when they size a radiant section, pick a decoke interval, or call a revamp vs. replace.
Some pieces below are live references. Others are topic cards we are writing toward — we list them so that you can see the scope, and because publishing what we plan to cover is the same discipline we use with any other project.
Read this section to
- Pressure-test a fired heater design approach
- Understand how our engineers frame revamp vs. replace
- Access calculators for recurring thermal work
- See the engineering culture behind our LSTK scope
Engineering Primers
Topics we cover
Nine short-form primers — some published, some in draft. Each reflects how Esteem engineers actually work through the problem, not a textbook summary.
Thermal design
Fired heater thermal design basics
Radiant-section sizing, bridgewall temperature, allowable flux, and the trade-offs that decide heater footprint and life.
Primer · Coming soonProcess
Two-phase flow in heater coils
Flow regimes inside a fired heater coil, why partial vaporization controls coking, and how coil geometry responds.
Primer · Coming soonCombustion
NOx prediction methods
Thermal, prompt, and fuel NOx in refinery service — and what the published correlations get wrong about real burners.
Primer · Coming soonLifecycle
When to revamp vs. replace
Condition, hydraulic headroom, metallurgy, and shutdown economics — the four-question framework behind 230+ revamp decisions.
Primer · Coming soonFabrication
Modular vs. stick-built
Where modularization pays, where it does not, and what shop/site trade-offs decide the answer on a given project.
Primer · Coming soonSMR
Reformer radiant section design
Tube pitch, burner arrangement, and firing patterns that drive uniform heat flux in hydrogen reformers — tied to API 561.
Primer · Coming soonSevere service
EDC and ethylene cracker coils
Coking drivers, decoke intervals, and metallurgical choices for cracking furnaces — the lessons behind our Chemplast Sanmar revamp.
Primer · Coming soonSimulation
Why WinHeat® exists
What our proprietary thermal rating engine does, why we built it in-house over three decades, and how it shapes our design output.
Primer · Coming soonNew primers are added as they are reviewed internally. To receive them by email, subscribe to Connecting Minds.
Reference Library
Preserved tutorials and guides
Practical fired heater and HRSG design references originally developed by Mr. Jack Hardie of Conroe, Texas. Esteem owns the copyright and continues to host them as a free engineering resource.
Tutorial
Fired Heater Design Tutorial
Step-by-step tutorial with worked calculations, preserved from the Jack Hardie legacy library.
Open resourceGuide
Guidelines for Fired Heater Design
Practical article-based guidance on design procedure and engineering checks.
Open resourceGuide
HRSG Design Guide
Structured engineering guide for heat recovery steam generator design with supporting references.
Open resourceCalculators
Online Calculators
Time-saving engineering calculators for recurring fired heater and thermal design tasks.
Open resourceCalculators
Engineering calculators
Legacy calculators preserved from the Hardie library — still useful for day-to-day thermal and fired heater work.
Capability
Design & Engineering
Process design, thermal engineering, and the 70-engineer HQ that produces Esteem's output.
See capability →Proprietary engine
WinHeat®
Our in-house thermal rating and simulation engine — the reason our heaters perform.
Read about WinHeat →Proof
Case studies
Named client work with on-the-record quotes — Chemplast, BPCL, IOCL, HMEL, HPCL, IRPC Thailand.
Read case studies →Questions on a specific fired heater problem?
Our engineers answer technical questions directly — send the scope and we will route it to the right discipline lead.