A Catalytic heater

is a flameless heater which relies on catalyzed chemical reactions to break down molecules and produce califaction (heat).^[1] When the Catalytic heater , natural gas, and oxygen combine together they ignite at a low enough temperatures that a flame is not needed. This process keeps repeating Catalytic heater until either oxygen or the fuel source is take out of the equation.^[2]

Types of Catalytic heater There are three main types of larger catalytic heaters:

Heated Enclosure Packages
Instrument Gas and Pilot Preheating Regulators
Space Heating
Heated enclosure packages are use to protect pipes from rain and ice build-up by keep the pipes heat.

The catalytic heater is contain within the package .

Space heating is a good substitution when heat is require but traditional means, such as electricity or safety concerns over explosive gas.

Catalytic space heaters generate infrared heat to raise the temperature in a given area.[2]

In addition to the larger catalytic heaters there are also small hand warmer or pocket heaters that use a catalyst combustion unit. Current units use a glass fiber substrate coated with platinum. Cheaper units may use other catalysts that don’t work as well.

Some older units used asbestos substrates. These hand warmers are for people who work or pursue leisure activities outdoors in very low temperatures, especially those that require manual dexterity that is not possible while wearing thick gloves or mittens. They date from the foundation of the Japanese Hakkunin company by Niichi Matoba, who founded to produce a hand warmer ‘Hakkin Kairo’ based on his Japanese patent of 1923.[3]

John W. Smith, President of Aladdin Laboratories, Inc. of Minneapolis awarde a US patent for a product called the Jon-e (pronounced “Johnny”) catalytic hand warmer on December 25, 1951. Production peaked in the fifties and sixties, at 10,000 warmers a day.

Aladdin went out of business in the 1970s.[4] In 2010 the Zippo lighter company introduced an all-metal catalytic hand warmer, along with other outdoor products.[5] There are other catalytic hand warmer brands like the South Korean S-Boston, the UK Whitby Warmer and also Chinese unbranded versions of designs based on the Hakkin ‘Peacock’ or the ‘Jon-e’ which date back to the manufacturing heyday of Hong Kong in the 1960s and 70s.