A mathematical technique for utility exchanger network synthesis and total site heat integration

Abstract

Fossil energy has been increasingly consumed since the second Industrial Revolution, with economic growth and modernisation. This has led to environmental issues such as resource depletion, pollution and climate change. To enhance energy efficiency as a measure to mitigate climate change, heat exchanger networks (HENs) for heat recovery are widely used in various industrial applications. This work develops superstructure-based mathematical models for direct and indirect HEN synthesis for interplant heat integration. The mixed-integer nonlinear programming model minimises the total annualised cost for utility exchanger network synthesis and total site heat integration, and the results are compared with those from the conventional and unified total site targeting methods. An industrial case study is presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed approach.