CPE 614

CHAPTER 5

PROCESS UTILITY
SYSTEMS
HOT & COLD UTILITIES
 After maximizing heat recovery in HEN, heating
& cooling duties which not serviced by heat
recovery must provided by external utilities.
 Most common hot utility is steam.
 High-temperature heating duties → furnace flue
gas or a hot oil circuit.
 Cold utilities → refrigeration, cooling water, air-
cooling, furnace air preheating, boiler feed water
preheating or even steam generation if heat
needs to be rejected at high temperatures.
 Better Use Utilities at High T
than Very Low T
Relative Cost/KW

-70°C Room Temperature 200°C

HOT UTILITIES:
We want to USE at LOWEST level and
GENERATE at HIGHEST level

COLD UTILITIES:
We want to USE at HIGHEST level and
GENERATE at LOWEST level
≥
Typical Utility Levels
 Hot Oil = > 350°C
 Flue Gas = 260 – 350°C
 High Pressure Steam (HP) = 220 - 260°C
 Intermediate Pressure Steam (IP) = 180 – 220°C
 Low Pressure Steam (LP) = 120 – 180°C
 Boiler Feedwater/Air Preheat = < 100°C
 Cooling Water = > 10°C
 Refrigerant = <10°C
How do we TARGET for the BEST
mix of utilities?

GRAND COMPOSITE CURVE

(GCC)
GRAND COMPOSITE CURVE (GCC)

 Composite curves (CC) can be used to set

energy targets, yet not suitable tool for the
selection of utilities.
 The grand composite curve (GCC) is a more
appropriate tool for understanding the
interface between the process and the utility
system.
 The GCC is obtained by plotting the problem
table analysis (PTA).
Plot Tinterval vs ΔH (T-H) Diagram
Tinterval

Heat Flow

ΔH
Relation with Composite Curve

ΔH ΔH
 “GRAND COMPOSITE CURVE”

Above pinch:
Surplus heat

Below pinch:
Deficit heat

ΔH
 “GRAND COMPOSITE CURVE”

ΔH

GCC shows the hot and cold utility requirements of the process
both in enthalpy and temperatures
 Utility Placement

Heat transfer that has

been recovered in the
process

ΔH ΔH

Each time a utility profile touches the grand composite curve

→ A new pinch (utility pinch ) is created
Utility Placement

ΔTmin = 20°C
 Steam generation with boiler feed water
pre-heat and superheat

HOW if Steam generation below pinch???


 Combustion of fuel in a furnace
→ Transfer to hot utility that
needs high temperature and/or
provide high heat fluxes

 Theoretical flame temperature (TFT) is the temperature attained when a fuel is burnt in air or oxygen
without loss or gain of heat.
 Stack loss is the heat released from the flue gas between pinch temperature and ambient.
Hot Oil and Flue Gas
ΔH
We can’t always locate the utility pinch on the Grand Composite Curve (GCC)

ΔH ΔH

The composite curves give the TRUE picture

 we need to add the utilities back in → form balanced
composite curves
 Procedure to determine the Loads
of Selected Utilities
1. Extract stream data.
2. Refer procedure for PTA to generate data for GCC.
3. Based on PTA data, plot GCC graph which is Tinterval vs ΔH
(T-H Diagram).
4. Make shade on the heat recovery ‘pockets’ area. Remember:
Heat recovery ‘pockets’ is a limit for the load utilities.
5. Draw the line of steams utilities / cooling water levels
(Temperature) on GCC.
6. Then, extract and calculate the load value for each steams
utilities / cooling water.

RABIATUL ADAWIYAH ABDOL AZIZ FKK, UiTM SHAH ALAM 2018

Exercise
Stream Type Supply Target ∆H (kW) Heat Capacity
Temp. Ts Temp. TT Flowrate,
(oC) (oC) CP (kW oC-1)

Reactor 1 Cold 20 180 3200 20

Feed
Reactor 1 Hot 250 40 -3150 15
Product
Reactor 2 Cold 140 230 2700 30
Feed
Reactor 2 Hot 200 80 -3000 25
Product

At ΔTmin = 10°C;
a) Draw the Grand Composite Curve.
b) For two levels of steam at saturation conditions and temperatures of
240°C and 180°C, determine the loads on the two steam levels that
maximizes the use of the lower pressure steam.