Application of absorption heat transformer to recover waste heat from a synthetic rubber plant

Abstract

This paper reports the test results of the first industrial-scale absorption heat transformer (AHT) equipment in China, to recover the waste heat released from mixture of steam and organic vapor at 98 °C in coacervation section, synthetic rubber plant of Yanshan Petrochemical Corporation, Beijing, China. The recovered heat is used to heat hot water from 95 to 110 °C, feeding back to the coagulator as the supplementary heating source. The AHT system is operating with H 2O/LiBr solution with heat flow of 5000 kW. The coefficient of performance (COP), the thermal efficiency and the temperature lift of the AHT system are presented. The heat transfer characteristics of the AHT components, i.e. absorber, generator, evaporator, condenser and the liquid–liquid solution heat exchanger, are also illustrated by comparison of experimental data and the model calculated results. The results show that the mean COP is 0.47, the gross temperature lift of 25 °C can be realized and the payback period is ≈2 years.