Pinch analysis of Cumene process using Aspen Energy Analyzer

Abstract

This article is divided into two parts. In the first part a process flow diagram for the production of cumene is designed with Aspen HYSYS. Cumene obtained is 98.78% pure and the designed plant is safe to environment with less emissions. In the second part heat exchanger networks (HEN) was developed for the process plant by performing pinch analysis using Aspen Energy Analyzer. Retrofit analysis was applied to find an alternate HEN which saves the energy of the process by minimizing the operating costs. In retrofit mode seven new heat exchangers are added to the base case HEN which reduced the operating cost with the payback period of 0.1797 years. A design alternative for base case design is also proposed with a payback period of 0.2312 years. Keywords: Pinch analysis, HYSYS, heat exchanger networks (HEN), aspen energy analyzer, retrofitanalysis