Process Integration

Basic energy integration problem

Eloy Borque Sánchez

Index
Statement....................................................................................................................................2
Section A......................................................................................................................................3
Section B......................................................................................................................................5
Section C......................................................................................................................................7
Section D....................................................................................................................................11
Section E.....................................................................................................................................14
Section F.....................................................................................................................................16
Section G....................................................................................................................................18
Section H....................................................................................................................................19

Statement
Objective: To determine the optimal energy consumption to meet the heating and cooling
objectives in a system formed by the 4 currents of the 2nd proposed exercise ("basic energy
integration - examples 1 and 2), and to compare the results with other integration alternatives.
a) Solve a 1x1 energy integration problem from the "Introduction" exercise ("basic energy
integration - examples 1 and 2), with the following data:

* U=550 W/m2K

* Oil cost: 5,5 10-5 €/kcal;

* Refrigeration cost: 1,5 10-5 €/kcal;

* Heat Exchanger cost (€) = 9800 A0,9 (A in m2).

* Yearly depreciation 35%,

b) Draw the T vs. H diagram for the 4 streams system (2nd proposed exercise), considering the
optimal DTmin obtained in the "1x1" system (previous step a)). Determine the maximum
energy savings that can be obtained through energy integration with this DTmin, and the
corresponding minimum external heating and cooling needs ("targets").

c) For the situation determined in section b), determine the structure of a network of heat
exchangers that allows obtaining the energy integration determined in said section b), the
necessary heat transfer area, the necessary investment costs, the value of the
benefits expected energy and, finally, the overall cost or benefit of energy integration.

d) Propose a network of heat exchangers (HEN) with a 2x2 structure with the same objectives
(in this point, it does not need to be "optimal"). For each of the 4 exchangers, identify the heat
exchanged, the inlet and outlet temperatures of each stream, the DT, and the necessary
transfer area. The cold streams can be finally adjusted using the utility (heating) system, and
the hot streams can be finally adjusted using a cooling system.

e) Numerically optimize (e.g...: Excel, Hysys, MatLab) the network reposed in section "d" (using
the same economic data used in section "b"). Does the result depend on the order how you
locate the heat exchangers? Compute the required heat transfer area the energy savings, the
corresponding investment costs, the energetic economic benefits,... and the best overall
economic results from the energy integration using this specific structure.

f) Numerically optimize (eg: Excel) the network determined in section "c" (use the same
economic data as in section b). Estimate the resulting heat transfer area, the required
investment costs, the value of the expected energy benefits, and finally the overall cost or
benefit of energy integration.

g) Compare the solutions obtained (sections b) and c)) against e) and f). Justify the differences
and equivalences.

h) Solve sections b) and c) using another reasonbable DTmin and compare the new results with
the previous ones.

Section A
Solve a 1x1 energy integration problem from the "Introduction" exercise ("basic energy
integration - examples 1 and 2), with the following data:

For this first section, it is needed to calculate the benefits obtained as the optimization
objective. My streams are 1 and 3, so with this optimization I will obtain the Pinch between
them.

The objective value to maximize will be defined by:

€
Benefit ( year )=Economic savings− Amortization∗C ∫¿ ¿

To obtain this equation we need to first calculate:

Economic savings=Energy savings(Cool∧heating)∗Price cooling∨heating

The Cost of the heat exchanger will be obtained using:
C∫ ¿=9800 A 0,9
¿

To obtain the área need to exchange, we will use the following equations:

Q=mi ·Cpi (T s −T e )
Q=U·A· ∆ T ml

Once all the equations are set, the starting conditions are:

Table 1. Initial conditions.

M·CP (KJ/HºC) INITIAL TEMPERATURE (ºC) FINAL TEMPERATURE (ºC)

STREAM 3 3000 90 150
STREAM 1 1000 250 120

In Excel we set that the benefit will change every time we change the exit temperature of the
stream 1. For this case, I started from 250 till 100. With this table, I searched the highest profit
value and it is when the Stream 1 exit temperature reach 107ºC and the Stream 3 exit
temperature is 137.67 ºC. The ΔTmin is 17.

To optimise this ΔTmin value, I used Solver to obtain the highest profit value. The final result
was a ΔTmin of 16.67 with a Stream 1 temperature of 106.67 ºC and Stream 2 temperature of
137.77 ºC.

The graph of the final temperature vs the benefit can be observed below:
 Stream 1-3
14000.00

12000.00

10000.00

8000.00
Benefit

Stream 1-3
6000.00

4000.00

2000.00

0.00
100 125 150 175 200 225 250 107ºC
Stream 3 final temperature

Figure 1. Profits vs final temperature of stream 1-3.

The final results are shown in Table 2:

Table 1. Results for section A

Stream m·Cp (kJ/hºC) Initial Temp (ºC) Final Temp (ºC) Q (kJ/ h) ΔT (ºC) A (m2)
Cold (3) 3.000 90.00 137.67 143000
17 1,43
Hot (1) 1.000 250.00 107.00 143000

Section B
Draw the T vs. H diagram for the 4 streams system (2nd proposed exercise), considering the
optimal DTmin obtained in the "1x1" system (previous step a)). Determine the maximum
energy savings that can be obtained through energy integration with this DTmin, and the
corresponding minimum external heating and cooling needs ("targets").

To draw the temperature vs accumulated enthalpy of the four streams system we need to set
a range of hot and cold streams temperatures. For each stream there will be an accumulated
value as the temperature increase (for cold ones) or decreases (hot streams).
Once the temperatures are set, we determine that the lowest hot temperature (100ºC) will be
the zero of our systems enthalpy. Then all the enthalpy can be calculated as:

Hot streams, °C Acumulated Enthalpy

T=100 H0= 0 0
T=120 H1= 4000 (120-100) = 80000 80000
T=140 H2= (1000+4000) (140-120) = 100000 180000
T=160 H3= (1000+4000) (160-120) = 100000 280000
T=200 H4= (1000+4000) (200-160) = 200000 480000
T=250 H5= 1000 (250-200) = 50000 530000

For the cold streams the starting point is 90ºC, which has an enthalpy of 95000, and it is
calculated as in hot streams:

Cold streams, °C Acumulated Enthalpy

T=90 H0= 95000 95000
T=130 H1= 3000 (130-90) = 120000 215000
T=150 H2= (3000+6000) (150-130) = 180000 395000
T=190 H3= (6000) (190-150) = 240000 635000

The results are shown in the following table:

Table 2. Enthalpy for each temperature

Hot streams
Cold streams
Temperatur m·Cp Enthalp Acumulate
Temperatur m·Cp Enthalpy Acumulated
e y d
e
100 4000 0 0
90 3000 95000 95000
120 4000 80000 80000
130 3000 120000 215000
140 5000 100000 180000
160 5000 100000 280000 150 9000 180000 395000
200 5000 200000 480000 190 6000 240000 635000
250 1000 50000 530000
 Temperature vs Acumulated H
260
240 DTmin = 17ºC
220
200
Temperature

180 147ºC
160
140
Hot streams
120 Cold streams
100
80
0 100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000 700000
Acumulate H
Figure 2. T vs H diagram.

Once we have the diagram, it can be determined the energy needed to cool Stream 2 and the
energy needed to heat Stream 4:

Table 4. System energy requirements.

System energy requirements

Q heating min (kJ/h) 105000
Q cooling min (kJ/h) 95000
Section C

For the situation determined in section b), determine the structure of a network of heat
exchangers that allows obtaining the energy integration determined in said section b), the
necessary heat transfer area, the necessary investment costs, the value of the
benefits expected energy and, finally, the overall cost or benefit of energy integration.

The combination of these exchangers is shown below:

Figure 3. T vs H diagram

From this diagram we can extract the minimum number of exchangers needed (1 below and 3
above pinch). For this system, it was considered that three heat exchangers can be set above
the pinch and two below the pinch. The combination of these exchangers will be limited by the
pinch temperature and the final value of Stream 2 and Stream 3. With these conditions, the
system is built and I obtained:

Below Pinch
Table 5. Exchanger 1 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 1
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 147.00 123.75
Stream 3 3000 99.00 130.00
∆T   17.00 24.75

Table 6. Exchanger 2 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 2
m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
 Stream 1 1000 147 120
Stream 3 3000 90 99
∆T 48 30

Above Pinch
Table 7. Exchanger 3 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 3
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 207 147
Stream 3 3000 130 150
∆T   57 17

Table 8. Exchanger 4 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 4
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 200.00 147.00
Stream 4 6000 130.00 165.33
∆T   34.67 17.00

Table 9. Exchanger 5 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 5
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 250.00 207.00
Stream 4 6000 165.33 172.50
∆T   77.50 41.67
With all the temperatures found, it can be calculated the area needed for each exchanger and
the total cost of installation and extra cooling/heating energy supply.

In table 10 it can be observed all the heat exchangers parameters and the cost per exchanger,
obtaining the total area needed and total investment.

Table 10. Exchangers design and costs.

  ∆Tml Q Q UA A Cost exch. Amort Costs

Exchager 1 20.63 93000 kJ/h 22320 kcal/h 4507.35 2.276 m^2 20547.37 € 7191.58 €
Exchager 2 38.29 27000 kJ/h 6480 kcal/h 705.00 0.356 m^2 3869.02 € 1354.16 €
Exchager 3 33.06 60000 kJ/h 14400 kcal/h 1814.75 0.917 m^2 9060.75 € 3171.26 €
Exchager 4 24.79 212000 kJ/h 50880 kcal/h 8550.78 4.319 m^2 36562.23 € 12796.78 €
Exchager 5 57.74 43000 kJ/h 10320 kcal/h 744.69 0.376 m^2 4064.49 € 1422.57 €
74103.86 € 25936.35 €
 The total cost of the exchangers rises till 74103.86 € and for an area of 8.24 m2.

Once we know the cost of the exchanger, it is needed to obtain the energy supply
requirements with the final temperatures obtained in the system. Below it can be seen the
heat/cool needed per stream:

Table 11. Energy flows for stream.

Below Pinch
Stream m*Cp Te Ts Q
1 1000 250 147 103000
2 4000 200 147 212000
3 3000 130 150 -60000
4 6000 130 190 -360000

Above Pinch
Stream m*Cp Te Ts Q
1 1000 147 120 27000
2 4000 147 100 188000
3 3000 90 130 -120000

The total costs for these heat exchangers, including the energy requirement, are the following:

Table 12. System total cost.

COSTS
Exchanger Cooling Heating Total
kJ/h 95000 kJ/h 105000 kJ/h
kcal/h 22800 kcal/h 25200 kcal/h
kcal/yea
175104000 kcal/year 193536000 kcal/year
r
€/year 25,936.35 2,626.56 € 10,644.48 € 39,207.39 €
Section D

Propose a network of heat exchangers (HEN) with a 2x2 structure with the same objectives
(in this point, it does not need to be "optimal"). For each of the 4 exchangers, identify the
heat exchanged, the inlet and outlet temperatures of each stream, the DT, and the necessary
transfer area. The cold streams can be finally adjusted using the utility (heating) system, and
the hot streams can be finally adjusted using a cooling system.

The structure proposed:

Figura 4. System of exchangers.

In order to carry out this, the inlet and outlet temperatures have been set and the
intermediate degrees of freedom have been left as degrees of freedom. These temperatures
have been determined by trial and error, in such a way that it can be assured that they are not
optimal for this network.

Tabla 13. Conditions.

Stream Conditions m·Cp kJ/h·ºC Tinlet Toutlet Q exchanged

1 Hot 1000 250,00 ºC 120,00 ºC 130000,00 kJ/h

2 Hot 4000 200,00 ºC 100,00 ºC 400000,00 kJ/h
3 Cold 3000 90,00 ºC 150,00 ºC -180000,00 kJ/h
4 Cold 6000 130,00 ºC 190,00 ºC -360000,00 kJ/h
TOTAL -10000,00 kJ/h
 The results of each exchanger are shown below, as the cost of each exchanger and the energy
supply cost is minimized:

Table 14. Exchanger 1 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 1
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 200 155
Stream 4 6000 130 160
∆T   40 25

Table 15. Exchanger 2 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 2
m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 250 190
Stream 4 6000 160 170
∆T   80 30

Table 16. Exchanger 3 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 3
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 155.00 121.25
Stream 3 3000 90.00 135.00
∆T   20.00 31.25

Table 17. Exchanger 4 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 4
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 190 160
Stream 3 3000 135 145
∆T   45 25

With the optimization showed the following results:

Table 18. Exchangers cost and area.

  ∆Tml Q Q UA A Cost exch. Amort. Cost

Exchanger 1 31.91 180000 kJ/h 43020 kcal/h 5640.04 2.849 m^2 25140.95 € 8,799.33 €
Exchanger 2 50.97 60000 kJ/h 14340 kcal/h 1176.99 0.594 m^2 6136.55 € 2,147.79 €
Exchanger 3 25.21 135000 kJ/h 32265 kcal/h 5355.44 2.705 m^2 23996.25 € 8,398.69 €
Exchanger 4 34.02 30000 kJ/h 7170 kcal/h 881.68 0.445 m^2 4731.59 € 1,656.06 €
60,005.35 € 21,001.87 €

Table 19. Energy supply requirement.

 COSTS
  Exchanger Cooling Heating Total
kJ/h 125000 kJ/h 135000 kJ/h
kcal/h 29875 kcal/h 32265 kcal/h
kcal/yea
r 229440000 kcal/year 247795200 kcal/year
€/year 21,001.87 € 3,441.60 € 13,628.74 € 38,072.21 €

With this system the total cost will rise up to 38 072€. The energy cost reduction will be
52,037€ and the profit of this exchanger system is 31,035€.

Section E

Numerically optimize (e.g...: Excel, Hysys, MatLab) the network reposed in section "d" (using
the same economic data used in section "b"). Does the result depend on the order how you
locate the heat exchangers? Compute the required heat transfer area the energy savings, the
corresponding investment costs, the energetic economic benefits,... and the best overall
economic results from the energy integration using this specific structure.
 To determine the optimal intermediate temperatures and find the minimum area for the
exchangers, the “Solver” tool has been used indicating some variables that are the
intermediate temperatures as already mentioned above. Some constraints and an objective
function have also been specified. We have 8 intermediate temperatures, but of variables we
have only 4 since some are a function of the others. That means, we only have 4 degrees of
freedom.

Figura 5. System of exchangers.

The economical results are shown below:

Table 20. New exchangers cost.

  ∆Tml Q Q UA A Cost exch. Amort. cost

Exchanger 1 33.56736503 172424 kJ/h 41209 kcal/h 5136.65 2.594 m^2 23112.11 € 8,089.24 €
Exchanger 2 68.4420085 37130 kJ/h 8874 kcal/h 542.49 0.274 m^2 3056.23 € 1,069.68 €
Exchanger 3 33.81334527 112675 kJ/h 26929 kcal/h 3332.27 1.683 m^2 15656.49 € 5,479.77 €
Exchanger 4 35.86604588 67325 kJ/h 16091 kcal/h 1877.11 0.948 m^2 9340.46 € 3,269.16 €
51,165.29 € 17,907.85 €

Table 21. Costs of the new exchangers system.

COSTS
  Exchangers Cooling Heating Total
kJ/h   140446 kJ/h 150446 kJ/h  
kcal/h   33567 kcal/h 35957 kcal/h  
kcal/yea   257792281 kcal/year 276147481 kcal/year  
r
€/year 17,907.85 € 3,866.88 € 15,188.11 € 36,962.85 €
With this new optimization of the temperatures, the system will have a cost of 36,963€. Also
the energy savings will be 50,052€ and its profit 32,145€. Reducing the area of exchange we
can reach an optimal cost comparing with section D. That happens due to the price of adding
energy is lower than installing an exchanger and Solver reached a minimum value of the costs
reducing the area found in section D.

Section F

Numerically optimize (eg: Excel) the network determined in section "c" (use the same
economic data as in section b). Estimate the resulting heat transfer area, the required
investment costs, the value of the expected energy benefits, and finally the overall cost or
benefit of energy integration.

As it was done in section E, it will be optimized the minimum cost of the exchangers system
using the section C configuration. The temperatures found as the “Solver optimized the system
was:
Below Pinch

Table 22. Exchanger 1 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 1
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 145.21 145.21
Stream 3 3000 90.00 90.00
∆T   55.21 55.21

Table 23. Exchanger 2 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 2
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 157.21 128.60
Stream 3 3000 90.00 128.14
∆T   29.07 38.60

Above Pinch

Table 24. Exchanger 3 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 3
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 210.781 145.21
Stream 3 3000 128.14 150.00
∆T   60.78 17.06

Table 25. Exchanger 4 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 4
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 200.00 157.21
Stream 4 6000 130.00 158.52
∆T   41.47 27.21

Table 26. Exchanger 5 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 5
  m*Cp Inlet Temp Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 250.00 210.78
 Stream 4 6000 158.52 165.05
∆T   84.94 52.25

With all the exchangers known and their temperature, it is calculated the cost:

Table 27. Costs of the optimized section B system.

  ∆Tml Q Q UA A Cost exch. Amort. Cost

Exchanger 1 0 0 kJ/h 0 kcal/h - 0.000 m^2 0.00 € 0.00 €
Exchanger 2 33.61 114429 kJ/h 27349 kcal/h 3404.15 1.719 m^2 15960.10 € 5586.04 €
Exchanger 3 34.41 65571 kJ/h 15671 kcal/h 1905.15 0.962 m^2 9465.96 € 3313.09 €
Exchanger 4 33.84 171140 kJ/h 40902 kcal/h 5056.35 2.554 m^2 22786.69 € 7975.34 €
Exchanger 5 67.28 39219 kJ/h 9373 kcal/h 582.90 0.294 m^2 3260.37 € 1141.13 €
51,473.12 € 18,015.59 €

Adding the cost of extra heating and cooling we obtain the following table:

Table 28. New system total cost.

COSTS
  Exchangers Cooling Heating Total
kJ/h   139641 kJ/h 149641 kJ/h  
kcal/h   33374 kcal/h 35764 kcal/h  
kcal/yea   256314325 kcal/year 274669525 kcal/year  
r
€/year 18015.59 € 3844.71 € 15106.82 € 36967.13 €

With this new optimization of the temperatures for section B, the system will have a cost of
36,967€. Also the energy savings will be 50,155€ and its profit 32,140€.

Section G

Compare the solutions obtained (sections b) and c)) against e) and f). Justify the differences
and equivalences.

Here are the costs obtained in the different sections:

Table 29. Comparation of the total costs.

Total Costs

C 41073.63 €

E 36,962.85 €
F 36,967.13 €
Comparing section C results with section E and F will show that working with the limitation of
the pinch is not the best economical option, as the price is higher.

In case E, the cost function was optimized to obtain the better temperature combination of the
system. This optimization showed how reducing the cost of area for heat exchanger is better
than reducing the cost of extra energy.

In section F, the first heat exchanger is deleted due to the Solver’s area reduction to minimize
the costs (which result is almost the same as section E). This function optimization is based on
costs and in this case the installation cost will be higher than the extra energy consumption.
The result is not the optimal from thermodynamic point of view, which says that having lower
areas of exchange will decrease the de ∆Tmin and it will have a better exchange. So, as the
exchanger cost is higher than the energetic savings, the optimizing method reduce the number
of exchangers to four. Also, it can be concluded that areas below the ∆Tmin will not be
economically feasible.

Section H

Solve sections b) and c) using another reasonbable DTmin and compare the new results with
the previous ones.
With a 12 ºC ΔTmin the graph obtained of Temperature vs enthalpy shows that the new heat
exchangers system, at least, should have five exchangers.

Figura 6. System of exchangers.

Once we have the diagram, it can be determined the energy needed to cool Stream 2 and the
energy needed to heat Stream 4:

Table 30. System extra energy requirement.

System energy requirements

Q heating min (kJ/h) 70000
Q cooling min (kJ/h) 80000

The new network of exchangers will be three below and three above the pinch in order to
obtain the desired temperatures.

Below Pinch
Table 31. Exchanger 1 inlet/outlet temperatures
Exchanger 1
  m*Cp Inlet Temp. Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 142.00 120.00
Stream 3 3000 100.67 130.00
∆T   12.00 19.33
Table 32. Exchanger 2 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 2
  m*Cp Inlet Temp. Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 142 120
Stream 3 3000 93.33 100.67
∆T   41.33 26.67
 Table 33. Exchanger 3 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 3
  m*Cp Inlet Temp. Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 120.00 117.50
Stream 3 3000 90.00 93.33
∆T   26.67 27.50

Above Pinch

Table 34. Exchanger 4 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 4
  m*Cp Inlet Temp. Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 202 142
Stream 3 3000 130 150
∆T   52 12

Table 35. Exchanger 5 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 5
  m*Cp Inlet Temp. Outlet Temp.
Stream 2 4000 200.00 142.00
Stream 4 6000 130.00 168.67
∆T   31.33 12.00

Table 36. Exchanger 6 inlet/outlet temperatures

Exchanger 6
  m*Cp Inlet Temp. Outlet Temp.
Stream 1 1000 250.00 202.00
Stream 4 6000 168.67 176.67
∆T   73.33 33.33

Once we know the temperatures of each heat exchanger inlet/outlet, it can be calculated the
area of exchange and the cost. In table 37 the results of this calculation are shown:

Table 37. Exchangers system cost and design parameters.

  ∆Tml Q Q UA A Cost exch. Amort Cost

Exchanger 1 15.37 88000 kJ/h 21120 kcal/h 5723.09 2.890 m^2 25473.87 € 8915.85 €
Exchanger 2 33.46 22000 kJ/h 5280 kcal/h 657.38 0.332 m^2 3632.99 € 1271.54 €
Exchanger 3 27.081 10000 kJ/h 2400 kcal/h 369.26 0.186 m^2 2161.85 € 756.65 €
Exchanger 4 27.28 60000 kJ/h 14400 kcal/h 2199.51 1.111 m^2 10772.59 € 3770.41 €
Exchanger 5 20.14 232000 kJ/h 55680 kcal/h 11517.31 5.817 m^2 47801.70 € 16730.60 €
Exchanger 6 50.73 48000 kJ/h 11520 kcal/h 946.15 0.478 m^2 5041.86 € 1764.65
10.81 m2 94,884.85 € 33,209.70 €

With the heat exchangers cost is calculated the total costs, adding the extra energy cost, and a
total value is obtained:

COSTS
  Exchangers Cooling Heating Total
kJ/h   70000 kJ/h 80000 kJ/h  
kcal/h   16800 kcal/h 19200 kcal/h  
kcal/yea   129024000 kcal/year 147456000 kcal/year  
r
€/year 33,209.70 € 1,935.36 8,110.08 € 43,255.14 €
Table 38. Exchangers system total cost with new deltaTmin.

As it can be observed, the new system with lower ΔTmin than the original has a higher cost.
This cost increases due to the number of heat exchangers and their price, but the extra energy
consumption is lowered. This energy saving have been achieved due to the extra heat
exchange that was possible thanks to a lower difference of temperatures. As conclusions,
lower ΔTmin increases installation costs due to having more heat exchangers and lowers the
extra energy needed. This option will be feasible when the energy price rises far more than the
heat exchanger price.