Q1 Solution

Figure 1.1 shows a Process Flow Diagram of a heat exchange process that has been designed
for maximum energy recovery according to Pinch Analysis.

(a) Extract the data from the flowsheet and construct a Stream Table containing Hot and
Cold streams. (4 marks)

Ts Tt CP Q

Hot Streams

3 120 60 10 -600.00

4 150 60 10 -900.00

Cold Streams

1 50 150 10 1000.00

2 50 150 15 1500.00

(b) Inspect Figure 1.1 and determine the Minimum Temperature Difference (Tmin) that has
been used to develop this HEN. (2 marks)

Both exchangers HX-1 and HX-2 have Tmin=20oC at the cold end. (Utility Ts are also 20oC).

(c) Due to the increased cost of energy, you have been asked to determine the utility targets,
if the Tmin was reduced to 10oC. Determine the new utility requirements and the pinch
temperature. (6 marks)

Problem table
 Stream Stream Stream Stream DT DH Q Qadj

Shifted T 1 2 3 4

155 0 1000

145 10 15 10 250 -250 750

115 10 15 -10 30 450 -700 300

55 10 15 -10 -10 60 300 -1000 0

Hot utility has reduced from 1200kW to 1000kW. There is now no cooling water
requirement. Officially, this is a threshold problem. However, I will also accept a pinch
temperature of 55oC, because this case (Tmin=10oC) is on the boundary between being a
pinch and threshold case.

(d) Draw the Grid Diagram for the HEN with a Tmin = 10oC, showing the pinch temperature.
There is no need to design the network. (4 marks)

120oC Pinch Temperature

3 60oC
150oC 60oC
4
150oC 2 50oC
150oC 1 50oC

(e) For Heat Exchangers HX-1 and HX-2, estimate the total heat transfer area required, for a
Tmin = 10oC. Assume both exchangers are counter-current. (4 marks)

( ) ( )
=
{( )/( )}

Duty Thot Thot Tcold Tcold LMTD UA Duty Thot Thot Tcold Tcold LMTD UA
in out in out kW in out in out
kW

HX-1 500 120 70 50.0 100 20 25 600 120 60 50.0 110 10 60

0 0

HX-2 800 150 70 50.0 103. 31.47 25.4 900 150 60 50 110 21.6 41.5
0 3333
3

50.4 102.
Figure 1.1: The Process Flow diagram for a Heat Exchange Network that has been designed
to provide maximum energy recovery.
Question 2 (20 marks)

The data for the Grand Composite Curve (GCC) for the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) in an
oil refinery is given in Table 2.1 for a Tmin = 30oC. The Greenhouse Gas Intensity is given
in Table 2.2.

Table 2.1 GCC (Shifted temperature versus heat flow cascade)

Shifted Temperature (oC) 395 295 279 234 215 172 121 41 30

Heat flow (MW) 108 22 10 10 8 0 24 78 73

Fired heater efficiencies (F ) can be calculated from the Theoretical Flame Temperature
= 1800oC, the Stack temperature, Tstack, which must be above the acid dew point
Tacid = 120oC, and the ambient temperature is To = 25oC.

Table 2.2 CO2 Emissions Intensity

Emissions Factor
Utility Efficiency
(kg CO2/MW.h)
Fuel for fired heater 193 Calculate

a) Plot the Grand Composite Curve on the graph paper provided and give the total Hot
Utility and Cold Utility requirements and the Pinch Temperature.
5 marks

Pinch Temp = 172oC, Hot = 187, Cold= 157oC, Hot Utility = 108MW, Cold Utility = 73MW
b) If there is only a direct fired heater available for heating with a Tmin between the flue gas
and the cold process streams of 30oC:
i. Calculate the fuel required to satisfy the heating requirements of the CDU.
 ii. Calculate the CO2 emissions (using Table 2.2) in tonnes/h

Fired Heater Efficiency = 1613/1775x100 = 90.87%

Fuel Requirement = 118.85MW
CO2 Emissions = 22.94 t/h

c) If instead hot oil was available at 450oC, determine the mass flowrate of the hot oil, if its
specific heat cp=2kJ/[kg.K].

Hot Oil Utility Pinch is at 279oC and 10MW.

Flowrate = 1131 t/h

Utility Pinch

4 marks

d) Determine the fuel requirements, efficiency and CO2 emissions intensity of the hot oil
fired heater (used to heat the hot oil back to 450oC), Tmin=30oC.

Find the minimum hot oil temperature from GCC= 278oC

Fired Heater Efficiency = 0.8406

Fuel Requirements = 128.5 MW

CO2 Emissions = 24.79 t/h CO2

e) Explain making reference to the GCC that you have drawn on why one method of process
heating is more energy efficient than the other.
Question 3 (20 marks)

A bio-refinery has water using operations as detailed in the table below. The principal contaminant is
suspended solids, which needs to be limited in operations 2 and 3, to ensure bacterial activity is
properly controlled. You have been asked to prepare a Water Management Plan based on a
theoretical minimum freshwater consumption rate where freshwater is assumed to have 0 ppm of
suspended solids.

No. Operation Limiting Flow Mass CCin CCout

[t/h] [g/h] [ppm] [ppm]

1 BFW Make-up 30 3000 0 100

2 Hydrolysis feedwater 40 4000 50 150

3 Clean-in-place Rinse water 30 6000 200 400

b)Draw the limiting water composite curve on the grid provided and obtain the target for minimum
fresh water flowrate for re-use only.

Limiting Water Composite Problem Table

Ci Op1 Op2 Op3 Fi dCi dMi M

400 30 30 200 6000 13000

200 0 50 0 7000

150 40 40 50 2000 7000

100 30 40 70 50 3500 5000

50 30 30 50 1500 1500

0 0
 450
Limiting Water
400
Composite
350
Water Supply Line
300

250

200

150

100

50

0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000

Pinch is at 100ppm and 5000g/h freshwater supply flowrate = 5000/(100-0) = 50t/h

(6)

c)Design a water-use network, which achieves this target. Draw the network as a conventional
flowsheet.
(6)

0ppm 100ppm 150ppm 400ppm

flim
30

20 40
40 2

20

30 3
24.0

FW 20

50 30 1 40 2 24 3

10 16 24

d)A steam stripping operation provides a water condensate stream at 50ppm of suspended solids at
a rate of 70t/h. This stream can be used as a separate source of water. Determine:
i) The new freshwater consumption rate
30t/h

ii) Determine how much of this stream can be used

70t/h
 iii) If a treatment method could be found to reduce by half the inlet concentration of
the suspended solids in the condensate stream, would you recommend that it be
used? Explain your answer.

No treating the condensate water will reduce the amount of condensate water that is
required, but there is already excess condensate available.

Q4

1. Spent caustic liquors from an oil refinery plant is contaminated with high concentration of sulfide,
and phenols. A typical wastewater from oil refinery plant has COD ranges between 10,000 and
100,000 ppm. Considering high pressure wet air oxidation (WAO) as part of the wastewater
treatment processes in the treatment plant:

(a) Propose a suitable wastewater treatment plant to treat the above wastewater stream before
sending for environmental discharge. In preparing your proposal, you should draw a simple process
layout and justify briefly your selection of treatment process. Table 1 shows the effluent quality from
a high pressure WAO system (4 marks)

Table Q1.1: Effluent from high pressure WAO system

Parameters ppm
COD 2,000
BOD 900
TSS 15
Phenol 5
TDS 40,000
S-- 2
S2O3-- 100

Partially treated effluent

Raw effluent Discharge
Wet Air Oxidation Aerobic Treatment

Justification: A secondary wastewater treatment is required as both BOD and COD is still too high for
direct discharge. Due to the BOD level <1000 ppm, aerobic treatment is selected. Aerobic treatment
is selected as it has high BOD removal efficiency and produces stable end products

(b) Construct a typical WAO flow diagram. (5 marks)

(c) Outline the benefits of high pressure WAO (5 marks)

- Pretreatment of high loading wastewater to produce biodegradable residual organics

- Destruction of specific compounds, i.e. phenol, sulfide, etc.

- Elimination of toxicity or reactivity

- Process liquor treatment for recycle/recovery

- Gross reduction of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)

(d) Due to the high operating cost of the high pressure WAO process, your manager has proposed to
change from high to low pressure operation. Evaluate the proposal by your manager by listing and
advantageous and disadvantageous of each process selection. You may use the information provided
in both Tables 1 and Table 2 to justify you answer (6 marks)

Note: Your evaluation should be concise. Any information included that is incorrect will result in marks
penalty.

Table Q1.2: Comparison between Low to Medium Pressure and High Pressure WAO of Spent Caustic

Characteristics Low to Medium Pressure WAO High Pressure WAO

Pressure (barg) 4-10 14-30
Temperature (C) 110-140 175-250
Sulfide conversion Complete conversion to thiosulfates Complete conversion to sulfates
and partial conversion to sulfates
Sulfide in effluent 20-100 ppm Nondetactable, <1 ppm
COD removal Removes about 60% of the COD Removes over 90% of the COD
Organics removal None Substantial removal
Effluent pH Slightly acidic Alkaline
Vent gases Can contain H2S and mercaptans Free of H2S and mercaptans

Evaluation: It is not advisable to change to medium pressure WAO. When using medium pressure
WAO, the high sulfide and thiosulfates content in the effluent may cause operational problems in a
downstream biological treatment system. There are few disadvantages of medium pressure WAO
(either three):
- thiosulfates will affect sludge settlability and are not readily stabilized to the sulfate form in the
biological treatment units aeration system

- do not remove oil and polymer forming compounds, thus fouling can happen

- produces vent gas that contains H2S and mercaptans that require incineration to treat the vent gas
due to high toxicity and odor content, thus generate higher cost consumption

- From Table 1, the BOD in effluent produced from high pressure WAO is already quite high (900
ppm). If medium pressure is used, none organics will be removed and thus the effluent will contain
even higher BOD (>900 ppm) which made the aerobic treatment system infeasible. Higher BOD
content (>1000ppm) will need anaerobic treatment and swithching from aerobic to anaerobic
treatment will incur high capital cost
Q5

You are required to evaluate the collection efficiency of a standard reverse-flow cyclone as shown in
Figure 2.

Figure Q2.1: Standard reverse-flow cyclone with tangential inlet

The scale factors of standard reverse-flow cyclone are given as follow with maximum air flowrate
capacity of 510-7 m3/s at STP:

1 2
Number of turns, = (1 + 2
); L1 = L2 = 2D

The performance of cyclone can be described using the efficiency plot in Figure 3, where Dp is the
diameter of a particle while Dp,50 is the diameter of a particle that can be removed with a collection
efficiency of 50% and is defined as

9 2
,50 = 2 (Eqn 2.1)

Figure Q2.2: Dimensions and collection efficiency of a standard reverse-flow cyclone

Given D = 0.02 m, H = 0.01 m, W = 0.005 m, (STP) = 1.81 10-5 kgm-1s-1

(a) Explain briefly the operation of cyclone in the removal of particles. Give ONE disadvantage of
cyclone (5 marks)

Refer to lecture notes.

(b) Estimate the collection efficiency of a standard reverse-flow cyclone to collect sperical particles
with size Dp = 155 m, density (p= 1000 kg/m3). Assuming the cyclone operates at minimum
volumetric flowrate, Q of 110-7 m3/s at STP.

(6 marks)

Interpolate the plot in Figure 3 gives the collection efficiency of 70%

(c) Propose one strategy to improve the collection efficiency in part (a) without additonal capital
cost. Explain the strategy using your own words (4 marks)

Referring to Figure 3, collection efficiency will increase with increasing dimension Dp/Dp,50. Therefore,
Dp,50 needs to be reduced. Based on Eqn 2.1, Dp,50 is decreased with increasing air volumetric flowrate
Q. Thus, to improve the efficiency of the cyclone, the air flowrate Q can be adjusted to its maximum
value, without having to spend on capital cost

(d) Assuming the particle size is reduced to Dp = 50 m, assess the cyclone performance. Suggest one
possible solution to achieve collection efficiency of 80 % (5 marks)

Collection efficiency is estimated at 50%. Therefore, the existing cyclone is not capable in doing the
job.
Q6 (20 marks)

A vent gas stream has the following molar composition, 80% CH4, 10% N2, 8% CO2 and 2% H2S and a
lower heating value of 700MJ/kmol at a standard temperature of 25oC. Atomic weights are: C=12,
N=14, O=16, S=32. Air consists of 21mol% O2.

(a) Discuss including simplified flow diagram(s) at least one option for removing H2S from the fuel gas
prior to combustion. (4 marks)

Removing H2S prior to combustion is beneficial, because it can be converted into sulphur using the
Clauss Process. Sulphur is a higher value product than sulphuric acid.

Methods for removing H2S include both chemical and physical absorption. Physical absorption is
more suited to high partial pressures of H2S. The regeneration can be either the reduction in pressure
or by heating. The flow diagram is -

Absorber Regenerator

Vent gas

(2 marks for description and 2 marks for flowsheet)

(b) Another option is to burn this stream in a thermal oxidizer with heat recovery from a steam
generation unit. Determine the stoichiometric oxygen requirement for the process in mol O2 /mol
vent gas. (2 marks)

CH4 + 2O2 CO2 +2H2O

H2S + 3/2O2 H2O + SO2

Basis 100 kmol of vent gas

80kmol CH4 requires 160kmol O2 (1 mark)

2kmol H2S requires 3kmol O2 (1 mark)

Total O2 requirement per kmol of Vent Gas = 1.63

(c) Determine the theoretical combustion temperature if the vent stream is burnt with 20% excess
dry air and neither the air nor the vent stream are preheated. Take the average sensible heat of the
combustion flue gas to be 1.25kJ/[kg.K] (8
marks)

Take basis 100kmol of vent gas

Flue gas consists of:

O2 = 0.2x163 = 32.6kmol 1043.2kg

N2 = 1.2x163x79/21 + 10 = 735.8kmol 20603kg

H2O = 160 + 2 = 162 kmol 2916kg

CO2 = 80 + 8 = 88 kmol 3872kg

SO2 = 2 kmol 128kg

Total = 1020 kmol 28562 kg

Energy balance mvg.Hr = mfg.cp.T

700x103x100=28562x1.25xT

T = 70000 x103/(1.25x28.562 x103) = 1960oC

Tcombustion = 1985oC (or 2258K)

(d) Based on your answer to part (c), provide at least one benefit and one potential problem resulting
from preheating the combustion air using waste heat from the flue gas stream. (2 marks)

Benefit Greater thermal efficiency because of higher combustion temperature for the same
quantity of air, leading to more steam generation per unit of fuel (1 mark)

Potential problem Greater potential to form NO due to the higher combustion temperatures

(e) Determine the concentration of SO2 likely to be formed in the flue gas. Express your answer in
mg/Nm3 (at STP). (2 marks)

Total SO2 = 128kg

Total Flue gas = 1020kmol (1kmol = 22.4m3 at STP)

[SO2] = (128 x 106) mg / (1020 x 22.4) = 5602mg/Nm3

(f) Give the name of one method used for removing SO2 from flue gas and list any raw materials that
are required by this process. (2 marks)

Limestone scrubbing Limestone (CaCO3)

SO2 conversion to SO3 and H2SO4 Oxidation in air or using activated carbon