Heat Exchanger Network Research Articles

STREAMS HEAT INTEGRATION IN THE SEPARATION PROCESS OF THE FURFURAL-WATER HETEROAZEOTROPIC MIXTURE BY USING TWO STRETCHING COLUMNS

The process of azeotropic mixtures rectification takes place in many branches of the chemical industry. This process requires significant energy consumption both for heating and evaporation of process streams, and for vapor condensation and cooling of products. The consumption of external energy essentially depends on the methods of separation processes organization. Pinch analysis is one of the modern methods for designing chemical-technological systems with the aim of optimal use of external energy sources by maximizing the heat integration of system process streams, taking into account the limitations of a particular manufacture, the requirements of environmental safety and environmental protection. In this paper the heat integration of the heteroazeotropic furfural-water mixture separation process by two columns was considered. In each column the azeoptrope is a light-boiling one, and one of the mixture components is a low-boiling one. The heat and material balances of the rectifying plant were calculated and the table of its streams was formed, that is, the data of the chemical-technological system were extracted. From the total set of heat streams, the subset was selected for heat integration. Composite curves for the selected heat streams subject to heat integration were built and their relative position on the temperature-enthalpy diagram was analyzed. This analysis showed that for a certain value of the minimum temperature difference in the heat exchange equipment Тmin, there is a threshold problem. The problem was formulated for a value of Тmin slightly less than the threshold value that led to a slight increase in the consumption of external energy carriers. Options for further improvement of the network of heat exchangers were considered, and the occurrence of a cycle through the pseudopinch was identified. It gave possibility to remove a heat exchanger with a low load and redistribute this load among to other ones. Restoring Тmin in this case is impossible, because a strict restriction on the absence of hot utilities is accepted. Significant savings in external utilities load have been demonstrated. For retrofit modern Alfa Laval heat exchange equipment was selected for all the necessary positions.

Pinch and exergy assessment of an innovative hydrogen and methane purification process configuration based on solar renewable energy

Energy recovery from waste sources and developing new high-performance systems are essential to minimize energy consumption. A novel purification structure is developed to produce hydrogen and liquid natural gas (LNG) using exhaust gases from various industries, mixed refrigeration system, organic Rankine cycle (ORC), and solar energy sources. Solar parabolic trough collectors are used to supply energy in the low-temperature ORC. The proposed system produces 1.922 kg/s hydrogen with purity of 94.25 mol% and 1.777 kg/s LNG as the main product by consuming 10.56 kg/s crude hydrogen feed gas. The LNG and pure hydrogen specific power consumption (SPC) are 0.4111 and 0.3803 kWh/kg, respectively. The SPC of the sum of both products is obtained at 0.1975 kWh/kg. The methane and hydrogen recovery factors are 94.80% and 98%, respectively, indicating maximum methane and hydrogen absorption of the crude hydrogen feed gas. The exergy analysis indicates that the total exergy destruction of the integrated system is calculated at 5561 kW, and its exergy efficiency is obtained as 28.56%. The heat exchanger networks for the HE1, HE2, HE3, HE4, and HE6 multi-stream heat exchangers are extracted through the pinch strategy. The multi-stream heat exchangers have 8, 13, 6, 8, and 2 simple heat exchangers. The outcome results obtained from the parametric study is a 25.88% increase in the production rate of the main products (LNG and pure hydrogen). In addition, when the ratio of LNG to fuel gas increases by 48.08%, the ratio of main product to by-product increases from 54 to 62 mol%. By performing parametric analysis, it can be concluded that increasing the hydrogen content of the crude feed improves the performance of the system.

A holistic analysis of chemical process performance using pinch technology

ABSTRACT The chemical industry is acquiring new advancement day by day. Previously, quite massive equipment had been used to do heat transferring tasks, but now the industry has been modernised. Heat Integration is a trending area of study that might be applied in several sectors to redesign processes. Heat Integration alludes to any technique in chemical engineering that results in considerably smaller, greener, and more energy-efficient appliances. Heat Integration aims to improve energy transfer, lowering the equipment’s capacity for heat transfer. This paper uses pinch analysis to optimize heat integration and find the best heat-exchange network through case studies. Pinch Technology offers a systematic approach to reducing energy use across all sites and activities. It is feasible to determine the proper alterations to the fundamental process parameters that can result in energy savings by using pinch technology. The Aspen Energy Analyzer tool has been used to compute the heat integration of the case studies. After obtaining the data from the software, they were used in pinch analysis to determine the optimal alternative for the heat exchanger network.

Combined pinch and exergy analysis for post-combustion carbon capture NGCC integrated with absorption heat transformer and flash evaporator

Natural gas combined cycle power plant (NGCC) with post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) is a transitional technology for achieving net-zero emissions, but PCC significantly decreased its energy efficiency. In the work, absorption heat transformer and flash evaporator (AHT-FE-aided system) was used to mitigate the energy penalty of NGCC caused by PCC. Subsequently, heat exchange networks (HENs) were constructed for the system, followed by a combined pinch and exergy analysis (CPEA). The results showed that the improved HEN of the NGCC with AHT-FE-aided PCC (proposed system) resulted in 13.4 % less exergy destruction than the NGCC with PCC (reference system). To fully understand the exergy destruction and environmental impact of this system, an exergy distribution analysis and a technical evaluation were conducted. The net energy and exergy efficiency of the proposed system (48.11 %/46.04 %) were 1.73 % and 1.65 % higher than the reference system (46.38 %/44.39 %) respectively. The energy penalty of PCC in the proposed system (8.76 %) was lower than the reference system (11.89 %). In addition, the proposed system decreased fuel consumption by 5.90 g NG/kWh. This study confirms that the AHT-FE-aided system reduces the energy penalty of NGCC caused by PCC, and that CPEA is an effective tool to guide improvements in this area.

Integrating reaction pathways and downstream separation network for optimal sustainable process route selection

Reducing the environmental impact of chemical production has become a critical objective due to carbon emission regulations and the challenges the carbon market poses. Downstream separation network optimization, which can improve process sustainability by using complex heat exchanger networks, applying advanced separation techniques, optimizing the design/operating parameters, etc., has been researched for many years. However, most optimization work focuses solely on downstream separation sections without considering the selection of raw materials and different reaction pathways. This work aims to develop a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) optimization model, which integrates reaction pathway selection and downstream separation optimization, to select the optimal sustainable process route for utilizing raw materials or producing products. The objective is to maximize/minimize the process profit/cost. Decision variables such as binary variables, which represent the selection of separation task, key component, heating utility, and continuous variables, which influence the separation mass/energy balance, are considered. By giving parameters like reaction conversion rate, selectivity, and raw material/product price, this optimization model can identify the optimal process route for producing a target product or utilizing a raw material. The optimization model was applied to two case studies: one-step isobutylene and methanol utilization and two-step 1,4-butanediol (BDO) production. The process routes, using isobutylene for pivalic acid production and methanol for gasoline production, have the highest process profit per carbon emission. And the process route, which uses acetylene for BDO production, leads to minimum process cost.

A novel two-step approach for multi-plant indirect HENs design

Implementing interplant heat integration indirectly via intermediate fluid circuits is a reliable and promising means of enhancing the overall energy efficiency and reducing the carbon emissions of a chemical industrial zone. Although optimization-based sequential and simultaneous synthesis methods have been developed for interplant heat integration, obtaining optimal multi-plant indirect heat exchanger networks (HENs) remains a challenge due to the problem's size and complexity. Under this content, a two-step method is proposed based on the decomposable structural features of the HENs. In the first step, a mathematical model incorporating superstructure representation and pinch location technique is developed to optimize interplant intermediate stream allocation, by which the optimal configuration of intermediate fluids is determined by balancing utility targets and intermediate stream cost with pumps and pipelines. This approach enables multiple HENs synthesis to become independent, and in the second step, a compact MINLP model is proposed for the cost-optimal HEN design in each plant. The effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method are demonstrated by the better results obtained within reasonable computing times for three literature examples, particularly an industrial-scale problem.

Robust Bayesian optimization for flexibility analysis of expensive simulation-based models with rigorous uncertainty bounds

The performance of emerging biochemical systems rests on their potential to adapt to uncertainties quickly and accurately. Flexibility analysis is a quantitative framework for determining if a system can maintain safe and feasible operation despite uncertainty. Most available methods assume access to equation-oriented models, which can be difficult to obtain in practice. In this paper, we propose a sequential black-box flexibility analysis method, BoFlex, that overcomes this challenge by constructing probabilistic surrogate models over the joint space of uncertain and recourse variables. BoFlex is based on a special alternating confidence bound procedure, which we show finitely converges to a correct solution under mild assumptions on the unknown functions. We also establish a rigorous upper bound on the convergence rate in terms of the maximum information gain of the surrogate model. The advantages of BoFlex are demonstrated on several case studies including a heat exchanger network and a bubble column reactor.

Process modelling and assessment of thermochemical sulfur-iodine cycle for hydrogen production considering Bunsen reaction kinetics

Thermochemical sulfur-iodine (SI) cycle is one of the large-scale, clean, and efficient hydrogen production routes. The Bunsen reaction process is always simulated by a stoichiometric reaction, without considering the realistic Bunsen reaction kinetic process. Herein, a user-defined Fortran module concerning Bunsen reaction kinetics was developed and embedded into a continuous stirred tank reactor (RCSTR), and then a SI flowsheet with 100 L/h hydrogen production was modeled. The key parameter optimization, mass and energy balance were analyzed, the internal heat exchange network was created using the pinch point temperature difference analysis and the principle of energy cascade utilization, along with thermal efficiency evaluation. Bunsen reaction process reaches equilibrium after a period, which is consistent with experiments. The increase of H2SO4 decomposition ratio is beneficial to reduce the energy consumption of system. Increase in temperature has less effect on increasing the equilibrium decomposition ratio of HI. The theoretical thermal efficiency of system reaches 14.0–57.4 % considering the recovery of exothermic heat. This work provides a theoretical basis for the optimization of SI cycle.

Maximization of the Heat Transfer Irreversibility

Abstract The function of a heat exchanger is to transfer heat. In this paper, a second law-based hypothesis is advanced that in heat exchangers, the entropy generated as a result of heat transfer alone, termed productive entropy, is the desired irreversibility and should be maximized while the entropy generated (irreversibilities) by other factors like friction and mixing that do not contribute to this function should be minimized or eliminated to reduce the needed heat transfer area. The hypothesis is proven mathematically for heat transfer between two fluids in a single heat exchanger and also between one hot and two cold fluids in a network of up to four heat exchangers. There currently are two approaches for minimizing the total area (minimum initial cost) of a heat exchanger network (HEN). One uses some empirically based best practices that are generally rooted in the second law, and the other uses optimization algorithms. This paper provides a third approach for HEN optimization, outlining a systematic approach to minimize the area, based on the maximization of productive entropy. The approach identifies the global minimum area for networks with any number of hot and cold streams. It constitutes another method for HEN optimization and an improvement over the existing methods that provide approximate solutions. The methodology is applied to two test cases, and it is shown that this approach improves on the results obtained using the traditional approaches. The approach can be applied to networks using any type of heat exchanger or a combination of different types of heat exchangers.

A frequency domain dynamic simulation method for heat exchangers and thermal systems

Dynamic simulation of thermal systems is crucial for their optimal control but facing the challenge of balancing calculation accuracy and efficiency, where numerically high-efficient and accurate heat exchanger (HX) modeling is a key. Herein, we propose a frequency domain model for HXs' dynamic simulation in the to meet this challenge. The governing equations of HXs are first converted to frequency domain through Fourier transform, and the analytical solution of the converted equations yields the frequency domain HX model in the form of transfer matrix that connects the inlet temperature variations and outlet temperature responses. Furthermore, integrating transfer matrices of HXs into the system's transfer matrix enables a high-efficiency thermal system simulation. Numerical cases of a single HX, a HX network, a district heating network, and a thermodynamic cycle are used to validate the developed method and demonstrate its efficacy by comparing it against finite difference/volume method. Results show that the proposed method could reduce the calculation time by 2–3 orders of magnitude, and the maximum deviation of node temperature is around 1 K. The proposed method can be a powerful tool for the analysis of thermal systems and potentially integrated energy systems.

Unlocking the potential of synthetic fuel production: Coupled optimization of heat exchanger network and operating parameters of a 1 MW power-to-liquid plant

The use of synthetic fuels is a promising way to reduce emissions significantly. To accelerate cost-effective large-scale synthetic fuel deployment, we optimize a novel 1 MW power-to-liquid (PtL) plant in terms of PtL-efficiency and fuel production costs. For numerous plants, the available waste heat and temperature level depend on the operating point. To optimize efficiency and costs, the choice of the operating point is included in the heat exchanger network synthesis. All nonlinearities are approximated using piecewise linear models and transferred to MILP. Adapting the epsilon constraint method allows us to solve the multi-criteria problem with uniformly distributed solutions on the Pareto front. We improved the lowest production costs of 1.89 €/kg and the highest efficiency of 58.08% from the conventional design process to 1.83 €/kg and 61.33%. By applying the presented method, climate-neutral synthetic fuels can be promoted and emissions can be reduced in the long term.

Data-Driven Soft Sensor for Crude Oil Fouling Monitoring in Heat Exchanger Networks

Data-Driven Soft Sensor for Crude Oil Fouling Monitoring in Heat Exchanger Networks

Energy integration of hydrodealkylation (HDA) of toluene

The chemical industry is constantly making advancements. Previously, large equipment was used to transfer heat, but now the industry has modernized. Energy Integration is a trending area of study that can be applied in several sectors to redesign processes. Energy Integration refers to any technique in chemical engineering that results in smaller, environmentally friendly, and more energy-efficient appliances. The goal of energy integration is to improve energy transfer and reduce the equipment's capacity for heat transfer. Pinch analysis has been used in this study to explain the energy integration of Hydrodealkylation (HDA) of the toluene process by finding the best alternative for the Heat-Exchange Network (HEN). Pinch technology offers a systematic approach to reducing energy use across all sites and activities. By using pinch technology, it is possible to determine the proper alterations to the fundamental process parameters that can result in energy savings. In this study, the DWSIM, a chemical process simulator, has been used to simulate the flowsheet of the HDA process. Data obtained from the flowsheet have been used in the pinch analysis to find the best alternative for the heat exchanger network. Heat exchange from hot utility to cold utility has been done in this study, and a proper HEN has also been elaborated. The heating and cooling requirements for the HDA case study have been estimated using pinch analysis. It is estimated that the hot utility (HU) requirement is 64.19 kW and the cold utility (CU) is 202.83 kW. The detailed analysis suggests a 20–30 % reduction in energy consumption.

Energy-saving design and multi-objective optimisation of triple-column pressure-swing distillation configuration for separating n-propanol/benzene/water mixture with multiple azeotropes

The separation of ternary azeotropic mixtures with multiple azeotropes is often encountered in industrial wastewater treatment. This study explores separating the n-propanol/benzene/water mixture with three binary azeotropes and one ternary azeotrope via pressure-swing distillation (PSD). Two conventional PSD schemes are designed based on the ternary phase diagram. The multi-objective genetic algorithm facilitates the optimisation task for each sequence, taking the total annual cost, CO2 emissions, and thermodynamic efficiency as the objective functions. Then, the selection of the optimal solution from the Pareto front is performed using the technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution. Subsequently, energy-saving methods, including direct heat integration, heat pump, and heat exchanger network, are introduced into each optimal non-heat-integrated PSD process to address the drawback of tremendous total energy consumption. Finally, the proposed 12 energy-efficient PSD designs are compared with the conventional PSD cases in multiple aspects. The optimisation results highlight the importance of operating pressures as variables in the multi-objective optimisation problem. In addition, the W-B-N sequence shows superiority over the W-N-B sequence in decreasing cost and gas emissions and enhancing energy efficiency. The proposed energy-saving PSD design with direct heat integration, heat pump, and heat exchanger network gives the lowest cost amongst the 14 processes, being up to a reduction of 39% compared to the corresponding conventional PSD design.

A comprehensive review of recent advancements and developments in heat exchanger network synthesis techniques

A comprehensive review of recent advancements and developments in heat exchanger network synthesis techniques

A heuristic algorithm with a dynamic generation strategy for optimizing energy systems

The generation of new heat exchangers during optimization is the main driving force for the structural evolution of the heat exchanger networks. However, the new structure formed by randomly generating heat exchanger using a basic algorithm has only a limited reduction in the target cost, and this aspect has rarely been considered in previous studies. Therefore, this study proposes a new heuristic algorithm with a dynamic generation strategy, to improve the structure evolution capability of heat exchanger networks. The split ratio accompanying the generation strategy based on the concept of the dynamic equilibrium point is established, which improves the generation performance of new heat exchanger. To address the problem of heat exchangers with coupling relationship that are easy to be eliminated in the later stage of optimization due to relatively small heat load, an incentive heat load strategy is designed to coordinate with the former method to provide a certain opportunity for the new heat exchanger to be allocated a large heat load. Compared to the optimal results listed in the literatures, the results of three industrial network cases obtained by the proposed method are 1,711,806 $/yr, 6,665,342 $/yr, and 1,385,391 $/yr. This demonstrates that the proposed scheme improves the global search ability of the basic algorithm, promoting individual structure disturbance and competitiveness of new heat exchange units.

Performance monitoring of heat exchanger networks using excess thermal and hydraulic loads

Fouling in heat exchanger networks (HENs) affects thermal and hydraulic efficiencies resulting in economic penalties to the process industries. Conventionally, overall heat transfer rates of the heat exchangers in HENs are monitored to identify fouling. However, apart from fouling, these rates also vary with inlet conditions. Hence, estimating the degree of fouling accurately based only on heat transfer rates can fail. Previously, we had proposed the use of excess thermal and hydraulic loads as the basis for monitoring fouling in standalone exchangers (Patil et al., 2022). These are quantified as thermal and hydraulic performance indicators that can be easily tracked through suitably constructed charts. In this paper, we extend the approach to HENs wherein deviations in temperature drop across a heat exchanger vis-à-vis the clean condition also depends upon upstream heat exchanger(s). The network performance monitoring charts rely on normalized performance indicators and temperatures across heat exchangers and also have explicitly denoted normal, alert, and alarm regions. The proposed charts are applicable to HENs with or without temperature controllers. Two case studies comprising multiple scenarios of flow rate and setpoint changes are studied. The results show that the method can effectively identify the degree of fouling.

A novel mass–heat exchange network analogy, regression, and synthesis method for mass exchanger networks

Synthesis of mass exchanger network (MEN) is significant to save the material and reduce the pollution for process industries. Considering its small magnitude and concentration constraints, the optimized configuration of MEN can easily violate the concentration constraints, leading to a reduction in the structural diversity during the optimization process compared to that of a heat exchanger network (HEN) of the same size. Moreover, the constraint on the mass transfer driving force based on the equilibrium composition may also have major effects on the optimization process. To address these issues, this study presents a process–equipment–system analogy between the MEN and the HEN, proposing a novel mass–heat exchange network analogy, regression, and synthesis method. First, the generalized HEN was established by using an analogy considering the MEN based on either the original composition or the equilibrium composition. In this regard, a coordination coefficient was introduced to correct the deviation of the analogy relationship between the heat transfer and the mass transfer processes. Then, the generalized HEN was optimized by employing the random walk algorithm with compulsive evolution (RWCE). A regression method was proposed to regress the optimized HEN solution to the MEN expression, allowing the continuous optimization by using the RWCE with finer parameters. The final optimal solution obtained was found to be lower than those reported in the literature with enhanced structural diversity, demonstrating the effectiveness of the presented method and providing new ideas for further synchronous optimization of combined heat and mass exchanger networks.

Modified Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Formulation Implemented in Microsoft Excel to Synthesize a Heat Exchanger Network with Multiple Utilities to Compare Process Flowsheets

In the present work, a modified mixed-integer linear programming model was implemented in Microsoft Excel® and minimized using the Solver tool to obtain information to devise a heat exchanger network with multiple utilities from a set of hot and cold streams and selected utilities by hand. Regarding the mixed-integer linear programming problem, the summation of utility energy was added to the model, and this energy was equal to that from the Temperature Interval method and the Grand Composite Curve. Moreover, feasible temperature ranges for heat exchange were considered according to the second law of thermodynamics. Also, the last two temperature intervals from the rank-ordered ones were assigned for water energy balances. An energy balance was introduced into the algorithm for each interval between its temperature and the process pinch temperature in the case of the boiler-feed water. Seven stream sets collected from the literature were used for the mixed-integer linear programming formulation testing, and six of them are presented in this article. Because of boiler-feed water generation and the low cost of utilities, the annualized cost of a heat exchanger network with multiple utilities can be lower than that of a network without multiple utilities.

Full cycle on-line autonomous reconfiguration of MIMO control system based on REGA pairing principle for heat exchanger networks

This study presents a novel autonomous reconfiguration strategy to achieve full cycle optimal control of the heat exchanger networks. The proposed method aims to select the optimal control structure online to solve the problem of slow time-varying process transition caused by the inevitable fouling accumulation. An auxiliary variable is introduced to increase the degree of control freedom, and a flexible control structure is studied to provide appropriate pairings dynamically between variables. Subsequently, the nonparametric Relative Energy Gain Array (REGA) is considered to form the switching mechanism that determines the switching instants and variable pairing modes between control loops. Furthermore, the online optimization of switching regions ensures the optimal control performance. Finally, one typical experiment for the heat exchanger network in crude distillation unit was conducted and the results illustrated the effectiveness of the proposed control method. Compared with the conventional control system, the available service time is extended by nearly 18 months, and there is still room for further adjustment.