15-4-2020

MAXIMUM ENERGY RECOVERY:

For HEN analysis the pinch position and the composite curves are very
much useful. T hc,pinch and T cc,pinch for the hot and cold composite
curves are used to determine the pinch position. Del(H) pinch is the same
at the respective pinch points. At process pinch the entire system is
divided into sub-systems which are in energy balance with the respective
utilities. Above the pinch point the sub-system represents a net heat
sink and requires only hot utility. The use of cold utility in this
region would only increase the hot utility demand. Similarly below the
pinch point the sub-system represents a net heat source with requirement
of only cold utility.
If heat is transferred from hot above the pinch to cold stream below the
pinch, the energy balance for the two sub-system require that the loads
of both hot and cold utilities be increased by the amount transferred. A
design with no heat transfer across the pinch gives the max. energy
recovery (MER) possible. However, for a given del(T) min. MER refers to
the max. energy of hot stream is transferred to the cold stream so that
the utility loads are minimised.

The following are the rules obtained for the thermodynamic optimisation
of a HEN:
No heat to be transferred across the pinch point.
Above the pinch point only hot utility is used.
Below the pinch point cold utility is used.

CALCULATION OF UTILITY LOADS:

Since the graphical approach for calculating the utility loads are
approximate, these loads may be calculated accurately with the following
algorithm based on temperature-interval analysis:

1. A value for min. driving force between hot and cold streams given by
del(T)min. should be specified at process pinch.
2. The figure shows the temperature interval chart for the previous
example.

or
Reduce the temperature of all hot streams and increase the temperature of
all cold streams by del(T)min/2. This identifies all temperature
intervals determined by the new inlet and outlet temperatures of hot and
cold streams.

3.

Using the above equation, the net heat transfer for each interval
starting with highest temperature interval is calculated separately. A
negative value of Qi indicates a surplus of energy available from hot
stream in this interval. This surplus energy may either be used to heat
the cold stream at lower temperature or transferred to the cold utility.
Instead a positive value gives energy deficit at this interval. This
deficit may be compensated from the hot utility or energy available from
higher temperature intervals.

The table shows the Qi values for the 5 intervals . This shows how the
energy cascades through the temperature intervals and is called cascade
diagram.

4. The cumulative net heat transfer (del Qi) for each interval starting
from highest temperature interval is given by
A negative value represents possible energy transfer to the next lower
interval i+1 Therefore the del(Qi) values are assigned to temperature at
which energy transfer takes place and the its interval being the lowest
temperature. The positive value determines the minimum hot utility load
for the selected temperature difference minimum. For the example taken it
occurs at the 4th interval = 48 kW.

5. A modified cumulative net heat transfer is calculated using the

expression:

The values are assigned to the lowest temperature of i th interval. The

temperature at which the value is zero is called pinch temperature Pinch
as it shows the position of pinch.
The hot stream temperature at the pinch is

while cold
stream temperature at pinch is

From the table these values are 340 K and 330K . The minimum cold utility
load for the selected value of delTmin is equal to the modified
cumulative net heat transfer for the lowest T = -6kW.

This is same as the values determined from graphical method. However this
algorithm provides a numerical solution which can cover cases where the
assumption of constant specific heats is invalid or where the allowed
delTmin value depends on the stream matched.