Synthesis of large‐scale heat exchanger networks using a T‐Q diagram method

Abstract

For design of a heat exchanger network (HEN) by pinch technology, it is not uncommon to determine stream splitting and stream matching by empirical experience, in which numerous attempts are usually required to reach the final configuration of the HEN. In this work, a novel T‐Q diagram method is proposed to integrate large‐scale HENs on the basis of partitioning and merging heat recovery intervals. It aims at reducing the difficulties of the stream matching process for large‐scale HENs. The implementation procedure is illustrated via a simple HEN design problem. Furthermore, the HEN of a vacuum distillation unit in a refinery is used to further demonstrate the advantages and versatility of the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method can reduce the computational effort required and obtain a cost‐effective design of large‐scale HENs. Therefore, it provides an effective graphical analysis tool for the integration of large‐scale HENs in practice.