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Basics of Heat Integration

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 Basics of Heat Integration
Jiří Jaromír Klemeša, Simon John Perryb,Petar Sabev Varbanova,  
a
EC Marie Curie Chair (EXC), Centre for Process Integration and Intensification CPI2, Research
Institute of Chemical Technology and Process Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology,
University of Pannonia, H - 8200, Hungary, klemes@cpi.uni-pannon.hu
b
Centre for Process Integration, School of Chemical Engineering and Information Science, The
University of Manchester, M60 1QD, UK, simon.perry@manchester.ac.uk

1. Introduction
The increase in the world population that has occurred, especially in the last twenty years, has
placed increasing pressure on the demands of world society, and most especially that of
industrial and agricultural production. Industrial production has increased sharply in countries
that are now demanding the goods and services that have been available to countries that have
been industrialised at an earlier date. The increase has required a large and continuous supply
of energy delivered principally from natural resources, mainly in the form of fossil fuels, such
as coal, oil and natural gas.

The accelerating development of these countries which also have large populations, such as
China and India, has resulted in increased demands on agricultural production and processing,
which in turn have resulted in further increases in energy demands. These increases in energy
demands are not without cost. There have been sharp increases in costs of all forms of energy.

Since 1995 the energy consumption of the EC member countries has risen by 11 %, to the
value of 1,637 Mt of oil equivalent (Eurostat, 2006). This increase in energy consumption
contrasts with the population of the EC member states which is growing at a much slower
rate, approximately 0.4 %/y (Eurostat, 2006).

There have also been costly side effects. The amount of energy related emissions of CO2,
NOx, SOx, dust, black carbon and combustion processes waste (Klemeš et al, 2007a) has
increased to such a level that there is now an unpredictable effect on world climate. Therefore
it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that the production/processing industry takes
advantage of recent developments in energy efficiency thereby contributing to the reduction
in energy required by society, and also significantly reducing the amount of waste that is
produced.

Energy efficiency is generally defined as the effectiveness with which energy resources are converted
into usable work. Within many industries and within society generally, a large proportion of the energy
consumed is in the form of heating and cooling requirements. Consequently there is much emphasis on
thermal efficiency, which measures the efficiency of energy conversion systems such as office and home
heating and cooling systems, process heaters, chilling and refrigeration systems, steam and hot water
systems, engines, and power generators.

There is significant scope for the application of the Heat Integration methodology in the
context of rising energy prices and the requirement to significantly reduce energy related
emissions. Methodologies for increasing energy efficiency can also be used to integrate

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renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar PV and solar heating into the combined
heating and cooling cycles.

2. Heat Integration
Process Integration methodology provides the design foundation for combined heat and power
systems, refrigeration, air conditioning and heating with pump systems. It is equally
applicable for single family houses and large building complexes as well as for big industrial
sites such as oil refineries with petrochemicals production and power stations. The technology
answers one of the major challenges in the design of heating and cooling systems, namely, the
complexity of energy and power integration. The efficient use of available heating and
cooling resources for serving complex systems of various sizes and designations can
significantly reduce energy consumption and emissions.

Process Integration technology (or Heat Integration/Pinch Technology) has been extensively
used in the processing and power generating industry over the last 30 years and was
developed and pioneered by the Department of Process Integration, UMIST (now the Centre
for Process Integration, CEAS, The University of Manchester) in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.
The publications covering main issues include (Linnhoff et al, 1994), (Linnhoff and
Vredeveld, 1984), (Klemeš et al, 1997), and (Smith, 2005). A new edition of the Linnhoff et
al. book (1994) was recently published by Kemp (2007). A specific industry overview of the
technology and its application was presented by Klemeš and Perry (2007) and by Klemeš,
Smith and Kim (2009). The more recent developed with integration of renewable was
published by Perry et al. (2008)

Process Integration technology analyses the potential of exchanging heat between the heat
sources of systems or processes that use energy and the heat sinks via the use of heat
exchangers. The ultimate goal of the technology is to make more efficient use of the energy in
the system and to reduce the amount of external heating and cooling requirements. Coupled
with this essential targeting technology, a systematic design procedure has been developed to
provide the final energy reduction design of the system.

The Process Integration or Heat Integration methodology is based on the analysis and
understanding of heat exchange between process streams through the use of a temperature-
enthalpy diagram.

Initially the methodology first identifies sources of heat (termed hot streams) and sinks of heat
(termed cold streams) from the process flowsheet, representing them on the temperature-
enthalpy diagram (Figure 1).

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 " Hot " streams require cooling " Cold " streams require heating

T T

H H
Figure 1. Hot and cold streams on T-H diagram

These sources of heat can be combined to construct a composite hot stream termed the Hot
Composite Curve (Figure 2). The sinks of heat can similarly be combined to construct a
composite cold stream.

T(°C) T(°C)
250 250

200 200

80 80

40 40

3150 3000 H(kW) 3150 3000 H(kW)

6150 600 6150 750

(a) The hot streams plotted separately (b) The composite hot stream
Figure 2. Constructing the Hot Composite Curve

The second stage in the process is to select a minimum permissible temperature approach
between the hot and cold streams, ΔTmin. The optimum value of this ΔTmin results from an
economical assessment and trade-off between the capital and operating costs (mainly for
energy usage) of the process.

If the ΔTmin is large then this implies that energy use is higher than if a lower value of ΔTmin
is chosen. This in turn means that energy costs for the overall process heat exchange will be
higher but that capital costs, in the form of heat exchanger area, will be lower. If the ΔTmin is
lowered, then the heat exchanger system is allowed to recover more energy, but at the expense
of additional capital which is required to pay for the increased heat transfer area. The
selection of the correct value of ΔTmin is discussed in greater detail elsewhere, for example in
(Taal et al., 2003); (Smith, 2005), and (Donnelly et al 2005).

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 T(°C)
250

200 Pinch

150

100 ∆Tmin=10°

50

H (kW)
0

QCmin = 1000 QREC = 5150 QHmin = 750

Figure 3. Heat recovery targeting with the Composite Curves

If the resultant composite curves (CC) are plotted Δin the same graphical space then the
maximum heat recovery in the process and minimum use values of hot and cold utilities can
be obtained (Figure 3). These derived values are commonly known as targets, and form the
basis of a future design scenario.

The graphical representation of the heat sources and heat sinks in the form of the composite
curves, and the incorporation of minimum temperature for heat exchange in the form of
ΔTmin, can also be used to determine the position of the so-called Pinch. This is the point of
closest approach between the hot and cold streams on the composite curves graph. The pinch
in the composite curves has also provided an alternative name, which is commonly used for
the heat integration process, namely Pinch Technology.

Using the targets obtained from the composite curves, and making use of the temperature
location of the pinch, has allowed the development and implementation of different design
methods, which have been applied both for grass roots designs (Linnhoff and Vredeveld,
1984) and more importantly, for the retrofit of existing plants (Asante and Zhu, 1997),
(Urbaniec et al., 2000); (Al-Riyami et al., 2001).

References for the further study

Al-Riyami B. A., Klemeš J., Perry S. 2001. Heat integration retrofit analysis of a heat
exchanger network of a fluid catalytic cracking plant. Applied Thermal Engineering; 21
1449-1487
Asante N.D.K. and X.X. Zhu, An automated and interactive approach for heat exchanger
network retrofit. Trans. IChemE 75 (1997), pp. 349–360 (Part A)
Donnelly N, Klemeš J, Perry S. 2005. Impact of Economic Criteria and Cost Uncertainty on
HEN Network Design and Retrofit, Proc of PRES'05, ed J. Klemeš, AIDIC, 127-132
Eurostat, 2006, Eurostat Press Office <ec.europa.eu/eurostat >[15/03/2007].
Kemp I. 2007. Pinch Analysis and Process Integration. A User Guide on Process Integration
for Efficient Use of Energy, Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier, IchemE

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 Klemeš J and Perry S., Process optimisation to minimise energy use in food processing in
Handbook of waste management and co-product recovery in food processing, Vol.1,
K.Waldron (Ed.), Woodhead Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, (2007)
Klemeš J., Dhole V.R., Raissi K., Perry S.J. and Puigjaner L. 1997. Targeting and Design
Methodology for Reduction of Fuel, Power and CO2 on Total Sites. Applied Thermal
Engineering, 17, 993 - 1003.
Klemeš J.; Bulatov I., Cockeril T. 2007a. Techno-Economic Modelling and Cost Functions of
CO2 Capture Processes, Computers & Chemical Engineering, 31, 5-6, 445-455
Klemeš J., Smith R. and Kim J.K. (eds): Handbook of water and energy management in food
processing. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, England, 2008. ISBN 1 84569 195
4, 1029 ps
Linnhoff B., Townsend D.W., Boland D., Hewitt G.F., Thomas B.E.A., Guy A.R, Marsland
R.H. 1994. User Guide on Process Integration for the Efficient Use of Energy, IChemE,
Rugby, last edition
Linnhoff B., Vredeveld D.R. 1984. Pinch Technology Has Come of Age. Chemical
Engineering Progress, 33 40.
Smith R. 2005. Chemical Process Design and Integration, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 685 ps
Perry S., Klemeš J., Bulatov I., 2008. Integrating Waste and Renewable Energy to reduce the
Carbon Footprint of Locally Integrated Energy Sectors, Energy, 33 (10) 1489-1497 (2008),
doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2008.03.008
Taal M, Bulatov I, Klemeš J, Stehlik P. 2003. Cost Estimation and Energy Price Forecast for
Economic Evaluation of Retrofit Projects, Applied Thermal Engineering 23,1819–1835
Urbaniec K, Zalewski P, Klemeš J, “Application of Process Integration Methods to Retrofit
Design for Polish Sugar Factories” Sugar Industry, Volume 125(5), pp 244-247, April
2000

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