CN4205R Pinch Analysis and Process Integration

AY2016-17
Practice Problems - Solutions
PROBLEM 1
Establish the total annual cost target for Tmin = 10 K for the process stream system shown in the
table below. The table also contains data about the utilities available at the plant site.

C1

Supply
Temp. [oC]
20

Target
Temp. [oC]
180

H
[kW]
32,000

Heat Capacity
Flow Rate (kW/oC)
200

hi
[kW/m2/K]
0.6

C2

140

230

27,000

300

0.8

H1

250

40

31,500

150

1.0

H2

200

80

30,000

250

0.8

240

239

3.0

20

30

1.0

Stream

HP
Steam
CW

The utility costs are as follows:

Steam = 120 $/kW/yr
Cooling Water = 10 $/kW/yr
The installed capital costs for exchangers (including heaters and coolers) are given by:
Exchanger Capital Cost [$] = 40,000 + 500A
with A in [m2]

Solution:
For Tmin = 10oC, we have the following results:
Pinch temperature: 150oC (hot streams); 140oC (cold streams)
Energy targets: QH,min = 7500 kW; QC,min = 10,000 kW
With the given utility levels we can draw the balanced composite curves:

Composite Curves
300

250

T (C)

200

150

100

50

0
0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

Q (kW)

Figure 1
The area target is given by
K

1
k =1 TLM , k

Atotal =

hot streams qi ,k cold streams q j ,k

+

h j ,k
j =1... J
i =1... I hi ,k

and the caclulation data is given by the following table:

Segment Tout,H
Tin,C
Tin,H
1
40
20
2
80
25
3
95
30
4
150
140
5
200
180
6
239
199.5
7
240
225

Tout,C
80
95
150
200
239
240
250

25
30
140
180
199.5
225
230

LMTD
Q [kW] qH1
34.59862
6000
59.86085
6000
29.38345
22000
14.42695
20000
28.65252
5850
25.30337
7650
17.3803
1500

qH2
6000
2250
8250
7500
5850
150
1500

0
3750
13750
12500
0
0
0

qHU

qC1
0
0
0
0
0
7500
0

qC2
1000
1000
22000
8000
0
0
0

qCU
0
0
12000
5850
7650
1500

qi/hi
AREA
5000 12666.67
366.1
5000
13604
227.3
0
62104
2113.6
0
51458
3566.8
0
13163
459.4
0
12213
482.6
0
3375
194.2
A TARGET

We can then estimate the number of units required:

Above pinch: 2 hot streams, 2 cold streams, 1 utility (steam). Umin,above = 4
Below pinch: 2 hot streams, 1 cold stream, 1 utility (CW). Umin,below = 3
Target number of units = 7

Assume payback period, and calculate the annualized capital cost.

Using utility cost calculate the annual operating cost.

7410.0 m2

PROBLEM 2
For the following streams in a plant, minimum hot utility is 237 kW, minimum cold utility is
145 kW, and pinch is at 110/100oC for a minimum driving force of 10oC. Design a heat
exchanger network for maximum energy recovery without stream splitting (but may need more
units). (Hints: this design is slightly more difficult. Since stream splitting is not allowed, design
below pinch requires one unit more than the target.)
Stream
H1
H2
H3
C1
C2
C3

Supply
Temperature (0C)
350
400
110
50
70
100

Target
Temperature (0C)
160
100
60
250
320
300

Heat Capacity Flow

Rate (kW/0C)
3.2
3
8
4.5
2
3

Solution:
Start with grid (Figure 2),

Figure 2

Design below the Pinch:

Match 1: First H2 is matched with C2 and tick off 30 kW (Stream C2 still needs 30 kW)
Match 2: H3 is matched with C1 by ticking off 225 kW.

However, now the heat needed by C2 cannot be supplied by H3 as there is a temperature

violation (shown in Figure 3),

Figure 3
Hence, the load on match number 2 should be reduced (only 120 kW of heat exchange) so that
minimum driving force is maintained for heat exchange between H3 and C2 (Shown in Figure
4);
Match 3: Between H3 and C2 (ticking off 30 kW);
Match 4: Between H3 and C1 (remaining 105 kW of heat exchange);
Cooler: To cool stream H3

Figure 4

Design above the Pinch (Figure 4):

Match 5: Between H2 and C1 is acceptable, ticking off 675 kW.
Match 6: Between H1 and C2, ticking off 440 kW (However this is not acceptable as the match
between H1 and C3 after match h6 is not possible), hence, the network is revised as below:

Figure 5
Match 6: Between H1 and C3, ticking off 600 kW;
Match 7: Between H1 and C2, recovering remaining 8 kW of heat from H1
Match 8: Between H2 and C2, recovering remaining 195 kW of heat with H2
Heater: To heat C2 to it target temperature.

PROBLEM 3
For increasing the production of a petrochemical company, some process streams will have to be
cooled or heated as shown in the following table. Targets found using temperature interval
analysis are minimum hot utility of 60 kW and pinch at 340/3200C. Find the minimum cold
utility (without using temperature interval analysis or composite curves).
Stream
1
2
3
4

Supply
Temp. (oC)
400
340
160
100

Target
Temp. (oC)
120
120
400
300

Flow Rate Heat

Capacity (kW/oC)
1.0
2.0
1.5
1.3

Design a heat exchanger network for minimum utilities and using minimum number of units. Can
this network be improved? If yes, identify the loop, state the objectives of network evolution and
then evolve the network. (Hints: this is the last problem and also more challenging. It involves
both design and evolution of HEN. Design above the pinch is easy whereas stream splitting is
required for design below the pinch. Evolution involves loop identification, loop breaking,
checking minimum driving force violations and restoring them using a path.)
Solution:
Minimum Cold Utility = Minimum Hot Utility + Enthalpy change of all hot streams + Enthalpy
Changes of all cold streams

Minimum Cold Utility = 60 + 280 + 440 360 260 = 160 kW

Design above the Pinch is very easy as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6

Design below the pinch:

Match 1: Between hot stream 2 and cold stream 3, by ticking off 240 kW
Match 2: Between Hot stream 1 and Cold Stream 4 by ticking off 220 kW, but the remaining
heat needed by C4 cant be transferred from H2 as minimum temperature driving force is not
maintained, hence, one possibility is cyclic matching which will result in more units, other way
is splitting Cold stream number 4 (Figure 7).
But then number of streams criterion is not satisfied, hence hot stream number 2 is also split as
shown in Figure 8

Figure 7

Figure 8
Identify loop (as shown in Figure 8), the loop involves match 1, 2, 3 and 4. Eliminating the
match with minimum load (match 4) we get following evolved network.

Figure 9
However, as it is obvious from Figure 9, there is a violation of minimum driving force (as
circled in red), hence, restoring the Tmin by tracing the path (shown as dotted black line). This
is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10
After restoring the Tmin, the relaxed/evolved network looks like the one shown in Figure 11
with a penalty of 40 kW.

Figure 11