Heat integration retrofit analysis of a heat exchanger network of a fluid catalytic cracking plant

Abstract

The impact of a process system on environmental pollution has both a local and global effect. The performance of the heat exchanger network (HEN) in a plant is an important aspect of energy conservation. Pinch technology and its recent extensions offer an effective and practical method for designing the HEN for new and retrofit projects. The fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is a dominant process in oil refineries and there has been a sustained effort to improve the efficiency and yield of the unit over the years. Nevertheless, benefits and scope for improvement can still be found. The HEN of the FCC process considered here consists of a main column and a gas concentration section. Appropriate data were extracted from the existing network, using flowsheeting simulation. The stream data consists of 23 hot and 11 cold streams and cost and economic data required for the analysis were specified. The incremental area efficiency methodology was used for the targeting stage of the design and the design was carried out using the network pinch method consisting of both a diagnosis and optimisation stage. In the diagnosis stage promising designs were generated using UMIST developed sprint software. The generated design was then optimised to trade-off capital cost and energy savings. The design options were compared and evaluated and the retrofit design suggested. The existing hot utility consumption of the process was 46.055 MW with a ΔT min of 24°C. The area efficiency of existing design was 0.805. The targeting stage using incremental area efficiency sets the minimum approach temperature at 11.5°C, thereby establishing the scope for potential energy savings. To achieve a practical project, the number of modifications is limited. The selected retrofit design has 8.955 MW saving – 74% of the whole scope. This corresponds to 27% utility cost savings with a payback period of 1.5 years. The modifications include addition of four heat exchanger units and repiping of one existing exchanger.