Improved Problem Table for Targeting Hydrogen Network with Single Intermediate Header

Abstract

This paper introduces the generalized Improved Problem Table for flowrate targeting of hydrogen networks with single intermediate header. It consists of a stepwise procedure to locate the minimum flowrate targets for a hydrogen network, i.e., hydrogen utility, hydrogen header, waste hydrogen streams, as well as feed and product streams of purification system, prior to the design of hydrogen network. Three scenarios with direct reuse/recycling and purification reuse/recycling are analyzed for a literature case study to elucidate the proposed method. In scenarios A and C, the optimal flowrate targets are identical with those for the conventional hydrogen network without hydrogen header. The total number of direct connections between hydrogen sources and sinks are greatly reduced while the total number of connections is almost unchanged. In scenario B, the total number of direct connections between hydrogen sources and sinks is eliminated at the cost of a greatly increased flowrate of hydrogen utility.