Abstract
In many energy-intensive industrial process plants, significant improvements in energy efficiency can be achieved through increased heat recovery. However, retrofitting plants for heat integration purposes can affect process operability. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of such issues by systematically relating different types of heat recovery retrofit measures to a range of technical barriers associated with process operability and practical implementation of the measures. The paper presents a new approach for this kind of study, which can be applied in the early-stage screening of heat integration retrofit measures. This approach accounts for the importance of a number of selected operability factors and their relative significance. The work was conducted in the form of a case study at a large oil refinery. Several conceptual heat exchanger network retrofit design proposals were prepared and discussed during semi-structured interviews with technical staff at the refinery. The results show that many operability and practical implementation factors, such as spatial limitations, pressure drops and non-energy benefits, influence the opportunities for implementation of different types of heat exchanger network retrofit measures. The results indicate that it is valuable to consider these factors at an early stage when designing candidate heat exchanger network retrofit measures. The interview-based approach developed in this work can be applied to other case studies for further confirmation of the results.
Highlights
IntroductionEnvironmental legislation, various incentives, and policy support programs for energy efficiency, as well as economic and environmental concerns from customers and business partners, all motivate a stronger focus on energy efficiency in process industry companies
There are currently many driving forces to incentivize increasing energy efficiency in industry.For example, the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive [1] has resulted in national laws requiring large companies to perform energy audits to identify measures for energy efficiency.Environmental legislation, various incentives, and policy support programs for energy efficiency, as well as economic and environmental concerns from customers and business partners, all motivate a stronger focus on energy efficiency in process industry companies.technical, economical, and organizational barriers often hinder implementation of energy efficiency measures
This paper presented the results of a comprehensive inventory of potential technical barriers and process operability constraints related to the implementation of heat recovery measures in industrial process plants
Summary
Environmental legislation, various incentives, and policy support programs for energy efficiency, as well as economic and environmental concerns from customers and business partners, all motivate a stronger focus on energy efficiency in process industry companies. Technical, economical, and organizational barriers often hinder implementation of energy efficiency measures. Fleiter et al [2] stress the importance of distinguishing between different types of energy efficiency measures when discussing barriers for energy efficiency. The risk of production disruption is one of the most important barriers when the energy efficiency measures can affect the core process. Dieperink et al [3] discussed difficulties associated with implementing energy efficiency measures that affect the core process for selected industrial sites in the Netherlands
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