CPE 633 PROCESS ENGINEERING II

HEAT INTEGRATION OF
REACTORS
By Siti Shawalliah Idris, AMIChemE

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors

Adiabatic operation
Heat carriers
Cold shot
Indirect heat transfer with the reactor
Quench

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

Indirect heat transfer with the reactor

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

Exothermic Reaction

A maximum can occur in the temperature at an intermediate point

between the reactor inlet and exit

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

Endothermic Reaction

A minimum can occur in the temperature at an intermediate point

between the reactor inlet and exit

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

For indirect heat transfer, the heat integration characteristics

of the reactor can broken down into the following three case:

If the reactor can be matched directly with other process stream,

then the reactor profile should be included in the heat integration
problem

If a heat transfer intermediate is to be used and cooling/heating

medium is fixed, then the cooling/heating medium should be
included and not the reactor profile itself

If a heat transfer intermediate is to be used but the temperature

of the cooling/heating medium should be included

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

Batch reactor for a fixed rate of

heat transfer (exothermic reaction)
A family of curves illustrates the
effect of increasing the rate of
heat removal and/or decreasing
heat of reaction
Each

individual curve assumes the

rate of heat transfer to the cooling
medium to be constant for that
curve throughout the batch cycle

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

Batch reactor for a fixed

rate of heat transfer
(endotherm)
Fixing

the rate of heat

transfer in a batch reactor is
often not the best way to
controlic reaction)

Heat Integration Characteristics of Reactors (Contd)

The heat duty on the heating/cooling medium is given by

Qreact = (Hstreams+Hreact)
Qreact

= reactor heating or cooling required

Hstreams = enthalpy change between feed and product streams
Hreact = reaction enthalpy

Appropriate Placement of Reactors

Exothermic reactor

Appropriate Placement of Reactors (Contd)

Exothermic reactor integrated below the pinch

Same hot utility: Cold utility increase!

Appropriate Placement of Reactors (Contd)

Exothermic reactor integrated above the pinch

Required hot utility is reduced by heat integration

Appropriate Placement of Reactors (Contd)

Endothermic Reactor

Appropriate Placement of Reactors (Contd)

Endothermic reactor integrated above the pinch

The process needs more hot utility!

Appropriate Placement of Reactors (Contd)

Endothermic reactor integrated below the pinch

Required cold utility is reduced

Appropriate Placement of Reactors (Contd)

The various streams associated with the reactor can be

combined to form a grand composite curve for reactor
This

can then be matched against the grand composite curve

for the rest of the process

Case Study Pthalic Anhydride

Case Study Phthalic Anhydride (Contd)

Stream Data

Case Study Phthalic Anhydride (Contd)

GCC for the process

Case Study Phthalic Anhydride (Contd)

Divides the GCC into two

sections:
Reactors
Rest of the process

Note:

Grand composite curve for

reactor includes the reactor
feed and effluent streams.

Case Study Phthalic Anhydride (Contd)

Match reactor against the process

Appropriately placed in this case

Case Study Phthalic Anhydride (Contd)

What if the reactor is not appropriately placed?

Usually change rest of the process, not reactor, to get appropriate

placement.

Heat Integration of Reactors (Contd)

Heat integration will always benefit by making hot

streams hotter and cold streams colder
This

applies whether the heat integration is carried out directly

between process streams or through an intermediate such as steam
Care should be taken when preheating reactor feeds within the
reactor using the heat of reaction
If the exothermic reactor is appropriately placed above the pinch
and feed start below the pinch, then the preheating within the reactor
is cross-pinch heat transfer

Heat Integration of Reactors Summary

The appropriate placement for exothermic reactors is above the pinch

The appropriate placement for endothermic reactors is below the pinch

If the reactor is not appropriately placed ,then it is more likely that the
rest of the process would be changed to bring about appropriate
placement rather than changing the reactor
If changes to the reactor design are possible, then the simple criterion of
making hot streams hotter and cold streams colder can be used to bring
about beneficial changes

Working Session
Heat Integration of Reactors

Heat Integration of Reactors

How can we improve performance ?