Article

pubs.acs.org/IECR

Organic Rankine Cycle for Waste Heat Recovery in a Refinery

Cheng-Liang Chen,* Po-Yi Li, and Si Nguyen Tien Le
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan, Republic of China

ABSTRACT: Waste heat recovery is one of the most important development fields for the organic Rankine cycle (ORC), where
a low boiling point organic fluid is used as a working medium. The ORC can be applied to heat and power plants or to industrial
and farming processes. Some heat sources, like hot exhausts from furnaces, which contain particles or sulfide might harm pipes of
an evaporator. It is suggested to introduce water or heat transfer oil as an intermediate medium for aiming at recovery of waste
heat. In this paper, a mathematical model is represented for integrating ORC with the heat transfer fluid circulated as an
intermediate fluid for recovering waste heat from the background process. An ORC-integrated superstructure considering all
possible matches of heat-exchange between waste hot process streams, circulating heat transfer fluid, and ORC is proposed. The
superstructure also takes into account the possibilities of several sets of ORC and circulating heat transfer fluid. Based on this
superstructure, the model is designed and formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. A high-level
modeling system, General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is employed for the sake of solving this MINLP model. A case
study of crude preheat train is investigated to demonstrate the novel application of the proposed model for industrial waste heat
recovery. Economic analysis shows less than two payback years for the installation of ORC on a typical crude preheat train for
waste heat recovery.

1. INTRODUCTION forms of energy; however, they are not economical to apply on

Heat and power, or energy in general, which are mostly
generated from fossil fuels are mainly required in industrial
processes. Over the previous decade, it has been seen that the
costs of fossil fuels have shot up by four times although the prices
of many industrial products remain relatively stable because of
oversupply or worldwide stringent competition.
Moreover, taking a quick look back over the last 200 years, the
world population increased gradually from 1 to 2 billion during
the 123 years between 1804 and 1927. But later from 1928 to
2012, it rocketed up to 7 billion and is predicted to reach 8 billion
in 20241 which brings about the challenge of higher living
standards. As global population increases and living standards
improve, there is a greater need to consume more energy, almost
over 75% of which is distributed from fossil fuels.2 The rapid
growth in consumption of fossil fuels breaks the balances of the
environment which is inherently established well for people and
other lives. According to data recorded, due to human
contributions, there was an alarming CO2 content increase
exceeding the threshold of 400 ppm on May 9th, 2013, although
for 650 000 years before this atmospheric CO2 has never been
above 300 ppm.3 This meant that there were 15 billions of tons of
CO2 per year or 4 billion tons of carbon per year emitted to the
environment beyond the stability of the carbon cycle.4 Those
significant numbers sent an urgent message to humans and have
been showing the severe effects to the environment such as
serious thermal, chemical, and particulate pollution happening in
many big industrial cities.5 The growing energy demand is met
with nonrenewable fossil fuel resources, which are attached to
polluted emission and unbalancing of the carbon cycle, making
them the single biggest driver of global warming and climate
change. To face these urgent issues, one of the most important
activities is to push the consumption of fossil fuels to the limit.
Renewable and eco-friendly energy sources, solar, wind, biofuels
for instance, have been approached to promote the use of cleaner
the scale of industrial needs. Therefore, efforts to maximize
energy utilization efficiency, in other words, waste energy
recovery, especially in manufacturing plants are totally
worthwhile to be pursued and implemented.
Process integration (PI), defined as a holistic approach to
process design, retrofitting, and operation which emphasizes the
unity of the process for minimizing the consumption of resources
such as heat, water, etc.,6 is one of the most widely used
techniques for enhancing heat utilization within process units
and streams. A large amount of research over the last two decades
has focused on carrying out heat exchange between process
streams that need to be heated and those that need to be cooled
for reducing the demand of external hot and cooling utilities.7,8
Furman and Sahinidis9 provided a thorough review of the
literature on heat-exchanger network synthesis (HENS) for heat
recovery within a process. Chronological milestones and major
discoveries in HENS were highlighted. This review also paid
tribute to all those pioneers in the development of the insight-
based pinch analysis and design methods and the superstructure-
based mathematical optimization approaches. However, further
recovery of waste heat from the low temperature range is seldom
considered in industrial plants. For given hot and cold streams,
we are going to maximize the heat recovery between the process
streams. The “process pinch” is one important concept for
process heat recovery. There is heat deficit above the process
pinch, and there is heat surplus below the pinch temperature.
This means that, above the process pinch, cooling utilities should
not be used and use of hot utilities should be avoided below the
Special Issue: Sustainable Manufacturing
Received: September 10, 2015
Revised: January 25, 2016
Accepted: January 28, 2016

© XXXX American Chemical Society A DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381

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pinch. Therefore, we should recover the waste heat only from
below the pinch section. The waste heat is generally classified
according to the temperature, such as, low-grade waste heat for
stream temperature below 230 °C; medium-grade waste heat
between 230 and 650 °C; high-grade waste heat for 650 °C or
higher. A large portion of the heat created expensively is finally
released to the environment due to lack of effective methods for
recovery. It is reported that industrial low-grade waste heat
accounts for nearly 50% or more of total heat input.10 Heat
exhaustion causes considerable hardware costs and operating
losses, such as fuel, electricity, water, etc., and also reinforces
emission of green house gases (GHGs). Despite various efforts to
maximize the efficiency of heat utilization in industrial processes,
an effective method to recover the waste heat from low to
medium temperature sources and transform it into useful
mechanical work or electricity is an attractive alternative to
reduce the total fuel consumption and also the thermal pollution.
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is one of the feasible
technologies to recover waste heat from low to medium
temperature heat sources and to generate electricity. Instead of
steam, a selected dry organic fluid such as n-pentane is used as a
working medium in an organic Rankine cycle which circulates
repeatedly to transform the low-grade heat into mechanical or
electrical power. Many studies have been dedicated to
developing power cycles from different temperature heat sources
and working fluids and improving the efficiency of cycles. Several
researchers have investigated the application and the perform-
ance of ORC. To name a few, Saleh et al.11 gave a
thermodynamic screening of pure components as working fluids
for ORC systems in geothermal power plants. Papadopoulos et
al.12 studied the systematic methods for selection of optimal
working fluids for ORC under various operating conditions.
Papadopoulos et al.13 also proposed using the computer-aided
molecular design method for selection of binary working fluid
mixtures used in the ORC. Desai and Bandyopadhyay14 gave a
thorough analysis on the application of ORC for heat recovery
from typical background processes. Therein, the inlet/outlet
targets of hot and cold process streams were given and the waste
heat was limited from the heat surplus zone. The authors
presented a feasible method for the integration of the ORC with
the background process to generate mechanical work. Therefore,
Desai and Bandyopadhyay’s work mentioned a direct waste heat
recovery applied at below the pinch section. In their work, the
background process was changed to adopt the ORC application.
Valencia et al.15 proposed superstructure-based modeling and
optimization for integration of ORC with industrial processes.
The design objective was to minimize the overall capital and
operating costs. The ORC-integrated process optimization
problem was formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear program-
ming (MINLP) problem. Examples showed improvement over
the previously reported methods due to the fact that the trade-off
between the capital and operating costs as well as the sale of the
produced electricity were considered simultaneously. However,
the external hot utility in the examples was greater than the stand-
alone heat exchanger network. Recently, Chen et al.16 proposed a
modified superstructure and an MINLP formulation which
restricted the waste heat recovery from the heat surplus zone.
The resulting heat exchanger networks below the process pinch,
however, are usually different from the original one. Therefore, it
can be said that Valencia’s work was a direct waste heat recovery
and their design objective was concerned about the cost and
economic benefit obtained from application of ORC. The
differences of the current study are the configuration and the
B DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Article
objective. This study is to recover the waste heat from a fixed
background process, i.e. the background process configuration
cannot be changed. Therefore, indirect recovery is preferred this
our work. Furthermore, our objective is try to maximize the
amount of waste heat that is able to convert to useful work
through ORC. Thus, below the process pinch section is perfect to
apply the ORC instead of above the pinch area which would
increase the consumption of hot utilities.
In the previous studies, the organic working fluid usually
travels for a long distance around a plant and faces many heat
sources of various high temperature levels. Actually, this is
necessary because, in some plants, the inherent designs are
compact and convenient somehow. Therefore, in the case of an
ORC installed for improving the heat recovery, pipes of organic
working fluid need to be constructed and weave their ways
through a tangled net of pipes and units. Obviously, high
temperature heat sources in this situation would be very
dangerous because the flammable organic working fluid could
burst into flames whenever it is hard to prevent. Hence, traveling
of an organic working fluid with a long distance between pipes
and units within a plant is not a smart choice. One suggestion
could help overcome this challenge is employing another fluid
that is safer and more stable than an organic working fluid. That is
the concept of circulating a heat transfer fluid which alters the
organic working fluid to run around to take heat from heat
sources then transfer it to the organic working fluid operating
only within a safe area for an ORC. On the other hand, another
approach should be considered which is the use of more than one
ORC. Each of ORC could be established at each heat source so
that it can avoid the risk of fire or explosion caused by organic
working fluids. Different cases of using one or more than one
ORC integrated into the background process with a circulating
fluid to recover low-grade waste heat are investigated.
This article depicts a superstructure for heat exchanger
network synthesis involving a combination of organic Rankine
cycles for recovery of low-grade waste heat from the background
processes through the heat transfer function of an intermediate
medium called a circulating heat transfer fluid. A unified MINLP
model is then developed for portraying the integration of hot and
cold process streams with the aid of ORC for recovery of waste
process heat. Investigation on a crude preheat train example from
the literature8,17 is implemented to demonstrate the efficacy of
the proposed superstructure and MINLP formulation for
maximizing the recovery of low-grade waste heat through the
concept of net power acquired from operation of the ORC. The
payback year is analyzed to demonstrate the economics of
applying the proposed ORC for recovery of waste heat from an
industrial refinery.
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
The concept of an organic Rankine cycle integrated into a
background process can be declared as follows. There is a given
set 0 = {i|1, ..., I } of waste hot process streams which will be
cooled down from known supplied temperatures Ti,in to target
values Ti,out; a set 4 = {m|1, ..., M } of dry organic working
fluids are involved for recovery of low-grade waste heat; and a
given set 9 = {r |1, ..., R } of circulating heat transfer fluid which
is used as an intermediate medium to transfer heat between a
background process and an integrated ORC. Besides, a set
* = {c|1, ..., C} of available cooling utilities and the heat
capacity flow rates of all streams and available utilities, FC, all are
known. The concept of waste heat is considered as the residue of
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Figure 1. (a) Typical waste hot stream where all residual heat is removed by a cooler. (b) ORC for directly recovering waste heat. (c) Superstructure of
ORC assisted with recirculating hot fluid for waste heat recovery.
total hot process streams heat after all possible exchangers with
cold process streams that need to be taken out by cooling utilities.
The ORC-integrated system is improved with circulated heat
transfer fluids installed in the heat surplus zone, below the
process pinch, to collect the waste heat from waste hot process
streams. The recovered waste heat is then passed to the ORC,
and the high-pressure vapor of organic working fluid is finally fed
to a turbine to generate electricity or useful work. An ORC-
integrated waste heat recovery problem is to create an optimum
heat recovery configuration that can generate the maximum
amount of net power from the recovered waste heat.
3. SUPERSTRUCTURE FOR INTEGRATION OF ORC
WITH WASTE HOT STREAMS
Figure 1a shows a typical waste hot process stream where the
residue heat is removed by a cooler. Figure 1b depicts a direct
integration of organic Rankine cycle for recovering the waste heat
from the waste hot stream. In order to create the best
configuration of the heat exchanger network (HEN) to maximize
the recovered low-grade heat from the waste hot process streams
by applying the circulating hot fluid as a heat transfer medium, a
single stage superstructure which integrates the ORC and the
circulating heat transfer fluid for waste heat recovering is
proposed, as shown in Figure 1c. In an ORC-integrated
superstructure, for heat exchange where a waste hot process
C DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
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stream i plays a role of a hot stream and the circulating heat
transfer fluid r is a cold stream, HEir is a heat exchanger between a
waste hot process stream i and a circulating heat transfer fluid r;
Cic is a cooler to bring the temperature of the waste hot process
stream i to the final target temperature Ti,out by cooling utility c;
rhir ∈ [0, 1] and rcir ∈ [0, 1] are split ratios of corresponding hot
and cold streams attending transferring in the heat exchanger
HEir, where the corresponding output temperatures of hot and
cold streams are denoted as thir and tcir, respectively. The term ti
is the intermediate temperature after mixing all of thir because of
nonisothermal mixing of split streams, which is also the input
temperature of the cooler Cic. Similarly, for heat exchange where
circulating heat transfer fluid r is considered as a hot stream and
the organic working fluid m is a cold stream, Erm is a heat
exchanger between a circulating heat transfer fluid r and an
organic working fluid m; rhrm ∈ [0, 1] and rcrm ∈ [0, 1] are split
ratios of corresponding hot and cold streams coming transferring
in the heat exchanger Erm. Adiabatic mixing is applied for all
mixing of split streams. In this work, there are only hot streams
from which waste heat is recovered. The hot streams could be
split to be recovered by different circulating heat transfer fluids.
In case of only one circulating fluid used, there is no stream
splitting on hot streams. For the purpose of generalizing the
supposed superstructure, splitting the mass flow in these streams
is applied in this model.
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The operating principle of an organic Rankine cycle is shown Therefore, only the waste hot process streams will be concerned
in four key processes, as shown in Figure 2. PVm denotes a pump in the following formulation.
Equations 1 and 2 are the overall heat balance for the waste hot
stream i and the circulating heat transfer fluid r. Let FCi denote
the heat capacity flow rate of waste hot stream i,a term defined as
a product of a given mass flow rate and the corresponding specific
heat capacity of that stream, the overall heat balance for the waste
hot stream i, FCi(Ti,in − Ti,out), equals the sum of the heat
exchanged with circulating heat transfer fluid r, qir, and the
external cold utilities c, qic. Similarly, the overall heat balance for
the circulating heat transfer fluid r, f rCpr(tr,in − tr,out), where f r and
Cpr refer to the mass flow rate and the heat capacity of the
circulating fluid respectively, equals to the sum of all of the heat
recovered from all waste hot stream i, and also equals the sum of
all of the heat released to working fluid medium m.
Figure 2. Organic Rankine cycle. ∑ qir + ∑ qic = FCi(Ti ,in − Ti ,out) ∀i∈0
r∈9 c∈* (1)
requiring mechanical work Ppm to compress a low-pressure ∑ qir = ∑ qrm = fr Cpr(tr ,in − tr ,out) ∀r∈9
organic working liquid into high-pressure liquid. Pressure level at i∈0 m∈4
this state is equal to the saturated pressure in the evaporator Erm (2)
where the high-pressure liquid will visit after the pump to be
heated up and finally evaporate into a high-pressure organic For reaching the final target temperatures for waste hot stream i,
working vapor. The amount of heat Qe taken from hot process Ti,out, the waste hot stream i releases surplus heat qic to external
streams then transferred through circulating heat transfer fluid to cold utilities c ∈ * , eq 3 gives the total heat given to external cold
organic working fluid drives the evaporator. A turbine TCm is utilities, FCi(ti − Ti,out).
employed to expand the vapor from high pressure to a pressure ∑ qic = FCi(ti − Ti,out) ∀i∈0
level which equals the pressure of the low-pressure organic c∈* (3)
working liquid, simultaneously produce useful work Ptm. Finally,
low-pressure organic working vapor, which usually lies in the Equations 4 and 5 respectively denote the quantity of heat
superheated vapor region in case of dry fluids, is then condensed transferred in heat exchanger qir and evaporator qrm. In these
into saturated liquid by discharging extra low-grade thermal equations, rhir is the split ratio for waste hot stream i that
energy to external cooling utilities. Note, there are many heat exchanges heat with circulating fluid r and its output temperature
exchangers existing in this supposed superstructure. In fact, there is designated as thir. Similarly, rcir and tcir are the split ratio and
is no perfect heat exchanger of those the effectiveness is 100%. output temperature for circulating fluid r, rhrm, and rcrm are the
However, for the purpose of studying the waste heat recovery, split ratios of circulating fluid r and working fluid m that
the heat exchanger design is not going to be reached. Therefore, exchanges heat with each other. Note that the split working fluid
there is an assumption that the effectiveness of heat exchangers streams are assumed to be mixing isothermally for simplifying the
(e.g., evaporator, condenser, etc.) are considered as 1. It means it formulation.
is emphasized first the amount of heat recovered from the
qir = rhir FCi(Ti ,in − thir ) = rcirfr Cpr(tcir − tr ,out)
background process that is transferred totally through the
circulating fluid and second the power produced based on that ∀ i ∈ 0, r ∈ 9 (4)
amount of recovered waste heat. Furthermore, in this work, it
tries not to change the background process. Instead, a circulating qrm = rhrmfr Cpr(tr ,in − thrm) = rcrmfcme (Tme ,out − Tme ,in)
heat transfer fluid will be applied to run around absorbing waste
e
heat and transfer to ORC for converting to useful work. + λrm ∀ r ∈ 9, m ∈ 4 (5)
Therefore, only waste hot streams are considered to recover heat.
Also note that those split ratios at each specific location sum to
Note that the superstructure implies some assumptions. (1) The
one according to the mass balance, as shown in eqs 6−9.
split flow of waste hot streams is allowed to go through more than
one heat exchanger. This means that heat exchangers in parallel ∑ rhir = 1 ∀i∈0
are possible. However, the superstructure does not consider heat r∈9 (6)
exchangers in series. (2) Bypass is not allowed. (3) Adiabatic
mixing is applied for all mixing of split streams. ∑ rcir = 1 ∀r∈9
i∈0 (7)
4. MINLP FORMULATION AND SOLUTION STRATEGY
This article aims at developing a feasible approach to maximize ∑ rhrm = 1 ∀r∈9
the recovery of low-grade waste heat via the integration of ORC m∈4 (8)
and circulating heat transfer fluid with the background process.
Thus, the heat integration between process hot and cold streams ∑ rcrm = 1 ∀m∈4
r∈9 (9)
has been implemented, and the use of the ORC on recovering
waste heat from the remaining waste hot streams can not increase Equation 10 shows the heat balance for working fluid m in the
the consumption of external hot utilities when compared with ORC over the evaporators, and eq 11 is the heat balance around
the stand-alone system without the involvement of the ORC. the condensers. The total heat transferred from the waste hot
D DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
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Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

process streams to working fluid m, with heat capacity flow rate Equations 18−24 assign the known input and output stream
fcem, can increase the working fluid temperature from Tem,in to temperatures, and those stream temperatures at various mixing
Tem,out and then evaporate the working fluid into high-pressure points.
vapor, as shown in eq 10. Equation 11 shows similar mechanism
Tmp ,in = Tmc ,out ∀m∈4 (18)
around the condensers. Note that the heat involved in the
balance of working fluid is composed of both sensible and latent
Tme ,in = Tmp ,out ∀m∈4
heats, Λem and Λcm. The latter can be summed up from individual (19)
evaporators or condensers, as shown in eqs 12 and 13, where Lem
and Lcm are the specific latent heats under operating conditions of Tmt ,in = Tme ,out ∀m∈4 (20)
evaporator and condenser. Note that L*m represents for the
overall specific latent heat of a working fluid. λerm and λcmc stand for Tmc ,in = Tmt ,out ∀m∈4 (21)
the specific latent heat of the working fluid that participates in
heat transfer with the circulating fluid r at heat exchanger Erm and ti = ∑ rhir thir ∀i∈0
with the cooling utilities c at heat exchanger Cmc, respectively. r∈9 (22)
The Peng−Robinson equation of state (PR-EOS) is adopted for
calculating the specific latent heat and the enthalpy for the tr ,in = ∑ rcirtcir ∀r∈9
potential working fluids. The calculation details of the PR-EOS i∈0 (23)
are depicted in the Appendix.
tr ,out = ∑ rhrmthrm ∀r∈9
∑ qrm = fcme (Tme ,out − Tme ,in) + Λem ∀m∈4 m∈4 (24)
r∈9 (10) Equations 25−31 guarantee the decreasing temperature of waste
hot process streams and the increasing temperature of cold
∑ qmc = fcmc (Tmc ,in − Tmc ,out) + Λcm ∀m∈4 streams when they flow through the heat exchanger networks.
c∈* (11) Similar assignments are also given for the working fluid.
Ti ,in ≥ ti ∀i∈0 (25)
Λ em = ∑ λrme = fm Lme ∀m∈4
r∈9 (12)
ti ≥ Ti,out ∀i∈0 (26)
Λ cm = ∑ c
λmc = fm Lmc ∀m∈4 tr ,in ≥ tr ,out ∀r∈9 (27)
c∈* (13)

Equations 14 and 15 represent a simple method to determine the Tmp ,out ≥ Tmp ,in ∀m∈4 (28)
heat-capacity flow rates of the working fluid m in evaporator and
condenser, fcem and fccm. Therein, f m is the mass flow rate of the Tme ,out ≥ Tme ,in ∀m∈4 (29)
organic working fluid m, ΔHem and ΔHcm are enthalpy changes in
evaporator and condenser. For further details, ΔH*m is the total Tmt ,in ≥ Tmt ,out ∀m∈4 (30)
specific energy of the working fluid passing through evaporator/
condenser to raise the temperature from Tm,in* to Tm,out
* then make Tmc ,in ≥ Tmc ,out ∀m∈4 (31)
a phase change isothermally at the same temperature T*m,out. The The temperature differences defined in eqs 32−39 ensure that
specific energy required to raise the temperature is denoted as S*m , the temperature difference is always positive and will be greater
namely the specific sensible heat. Similarly, the specific energy than the given minimum approaching temperature ΔTmin, when
required for isothermal phase change is denoted as Lm*, namely a certain match of heat exchange exists. The minimum
the specific latent heat. approaching temperature ΔTmin sets the lower limit on the
ΔHme − Lme Sme temperature difference that must exist between the hot and cold
fcme = fm e e = fm e streams of every heat exchanger in the network for a reasonable
Tm ,out − Tm ,in Tm ,out − Tme ,in sizing. A decrease in ΔTmin causes an increase in the heat-
∀m∈4 (14) exchange area. ΔTmin is chosen arbitrarily as 10 °C in the
following study. In these equations, z* ∈ {0, 1} denotes a binary
ΔHmc − Lmc Smc variable which represents the existence of a certain heat
fcmc = fm = f exchanger if its numerical value is one. Note that the
Tmc ,in − Tmc ,out m c
Tm ,in − Tmc ,out
corresponding constraint will be relaxed for a nonexistent heat
∀m∈4 (15) exchanger where its binary variable has zero value.
Equation 16 gives the power Ppm required for compressing ΔTmin ≤ dtirin ≤ Ti ,in − tcir + Γ(1 − zir )
working fluid m from a saturated low-pressure liquid to
evaporation pressure liquid. ΔHpm denotes change in enthalpy ∀ i ∈ 0, r ∈ 9 (32)
due to compression, which can be computed from the operating
condition of the evaporator. Equation 17 is the generated power ΔTmin ≤ dtirout ≤ thir − tr ,out + Γ(1 − zir )
by high-pressure working fluid vapor going through the turbine. ∀ i ∈ 0, r ∈ 9 (33)
Pmp = fm ΔHmp ∀m∈4 (16) in
ΔTmin ≤ dtrm ≤ tr ,in − Tme ,out + Γ(1 − zrm)
Pmt = fm ΔHmt ∀m∈4 (17) ∀ r ∈ 9, m ∈ 4 (34)

E DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
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Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

Figure 3. Pinch point in (left) the evaporator and (right) the condenser.

out
ΔTmin ≤ dtrm ≤ thrm − Tme ,in + Γ(1 − zrm) Equation 42 is used to guarantee zero heat transfer rate for a
nonexistent heat exchanger.
∀ r ∈ 9, m ∈ 4 (35)
Q Lz ≤ q ≤ Q Uz
in * * *
ΔTmin ≤ dtmc ≤ Tmc ,in − Tc ,out + Γ(1 − zmc)
* ∈ {ir , rm , ic , mc| ∀ i ∈ 0, r ∈ 9, m ∈ 4, c ∈ *}
∀ m ∈ 4, c ∈ * (36) (42)
out
ΔTmin ≤ dtmc ≤ Tmc ,out − Tc ,in + Γ(1 − zmc) Furthermore, eq 43 can be added to guarantee at least one
existent evaporator for each working fluid.
∀ m ∈ 4, c ∈ * (37)
∑ zrm ≥ 1 ∀m∈4
ΔTmin ≤ dticin ≤ ti − Tc ,out + Γ(1 − zic) r∈9 (43)

∀ i ∈ 0, c ∈ * (38) The ORC-integrated heat recovery problem can be formulated as

the following mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP)
ΔTmin ≤ dticout ≤ Ti ,out − Tc ,in + Γ(1 − zic) problem P0, where the design objective is to maximize the overall
net power (Pnet) between power generation and consumption in
∀ i ∈ 0, c ∈ * (39) the turbine (Ptm) and pump (Ppm). We proposed maximizing the
Note that eqs 25−31 and 32−39 are possible to divide into two overall net power, instead of maximizing the thermal efficiency,
of the same overall meaning categories. However, it is not easy since the amount of recovered heat input into the ORC cycle is
for each category to be represented by one generic equation. not fixed. The operating temperature and pressure will give
Further studies will consider this issue for simplification. significant influence on the total amount of waste heat recovered
The possible phase change in evaporator and condenser needs by the ORC cycle and also the power generation efficiency. The
further attention. In the evaporator, the waste heat transferred to case study in next section will elucidate furthermore the
the high-pressure working fluid liquid will be used to increase its numerical details.
temperature until evaporation at the saturation temperature. In P0:
the condenser, the residue heat is released to the cooling water
where the low-pressure working fluid vapor will decrease its max P net = ∑ (Pmt − Pmp)
x 0 ∈ Ω0
temperature until its condensation at the saturation temperature. m∈4
Two additional constraints are used to guarantee the temper- x 0 = x1 ∪ x2
atures inside the evaporator and condenser are greater than the
⎧ zir , zrm , zic , zmc ; q , q , q , q ; λrm e c
, λmc ; ⎫
minimum approaching temperature, such as shown in Figure 3 ⎪ ir rm ic mc ⎪
and eqs 40 and 41. ⎪ Λ e , Λ c ; fm , f , fc e , fc c ; C ; P t , P p ; ⎪
⎪
⎪
m m r m m pr m m ⎪
⎪
⎡ rhrmfcme (Tme ,out − Tme ,in) ⎤ x1 ≡ ⎨ rcir , rhrm , rcrm; ti , tr ,in , tr ,out ; thir , tcir , thrm ; ⎬
ΔTmin ≤ ⎢thrm + ⎥ − Tme ,out ⎪ ⎪
⎣ rhrmFCr ⎦ ⎪ dt in , dt out ; dt in , dt out , dt in , dt out , dt in , dt out ;⎪
⎪ ir ir rm rm ic ic mc mc
⎪
+ Γ(1 − zrm) ∀ r ∈ 9, m ∈ 4 ⎪ ∀ i ∈ 0, r ∈ 9, m ∈ 4, c ∈ * ⎪
(40) ⎩ ⎭

⎡ fcmc (Tmc ,in − Tmc ,out) ⎤ ⎧ e e c c e,sat

⎪Tm ,out , Tm ,in ; Tm ,out , Tm ,in ; Pm , Pmc,sat ; Lme , Lmc ;⎫
⎪
ΔTmin ≤ Tmc ,out − ⎢Tc ,out − ⎥ x2 ≡ ⎨ ⎬
⎣ FCc ⎦ ⎪ e c e c t
⎩ Sm , Sm; ΔHm , ΔHm; ΔHm , ΔHm; ∀ m ∈ 4 ⎭
p ⎪

+ Γ(1 − zmc) ∀ m ∈ 4, c ∈ * (41) Ω 0 = {x 0| eqs 1−43}

F DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

For a given set of waste hot streams, one can find the heats at various states can then be found quite easily. Only those
maximized net power by solving P0. However, one can find that remaining variables in x1 will be solved for maximizing the net
under some operating conditions, such as the evaporator and power. The problem P0 will be simplified into the following
condenser temperatures and pressures play crucial roles during MINLP problem P1.
the optimization. To simplify the convergent speed and to figure P1:
out the impacts of these crucial operating variables, one
simplified solution strategy is adopt, such as shown in Figure 4. max P net = ∑ (Pmt − Pmp)
x1 ∈ Ω1
m∈4

Ω1 = {x1| eqs 1−43}

5. PREHEAT TRAIN EXAMPLE AND DISCUSSION

The proposed ORC-integrated model for waste heat recovery is
demonstrated on a crude preheat train process adapted from the
literature.8,17 After a complete process heat integration, the
resulting six waste hot streams are worth for heat recovery, such
as shown in Figure 5. To solve the MINLP problem P1, the
General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS)18 is used as the
main solution environment on 1.00 GB RAM processor with
BARON as the MINLP solver.
This example involves six waste hot process streams along with
cooling water as the cooling utilities. Given data for the problem,
including the starting and targeting temperatures of the waste hot
streams, their heat-capacity flow rates, the available utilities, etc.
are listed in Table 1. The minimal approaching temperature

Table 1. Data of Waste Hot Streamsa

target T
(deg C)
heat capacity flow rate (kW/K) Tin Tout
H1 fuel oil 163.33 120 90
H2 light naphtha 302.70 108 71
Figure 4. Proposed optimization flowsheet to maximize the net power H3 gas oil 82.24 172 65
from the ORC-integrated waste heat recovery system. H4 reflux 91.30 169 77
H5 kerosene 53.61 135 38
Instead of directly including all design variables in the H6 heavy naphtha 6.74 127 38
optimization, the evaporator and condenser temperatures CW 20 30
e
(Tm,out c
and Tm,out ) are optimized explicitly. The optimal
a
Cpr = 2.16 (kJ/kg·K); ΔTmin = 10 °C; isentropic efficiency of turbine
operating temperatures are optimized in the outer loops, and 0.8; isentropic efficiency of pump 0.65; working medium n-pentane.
those variables in x2 including operating pressure as well as those
thermodynamic variables such as enthalpies and specific latent

Figure 5. Typical crude preheat train with six waste hot streams.8,17

G DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

Table 2. Effects of Evaporator Temperature on ORC Performance where Tcm,out = 30 °C (Pc,sat

m = 0.821 bar) and Tm,in ≈ 30.1 °C
e

(Working Fluid n-Pentane)

Tem,out Tcm,in Pe,sat
m fm wnet Wnet Qe ηORC
ORC no. of hot streams deg C bar kg/s kJ/kg MW %
one H5 65 44.5 2.471 8.01 31.0 0.248 3.100 8.0
ORC H5 70 46.8 2.833 7.31 35.1 0.257 3.113 8.2
H5 72 47.7 2.989 7.02 36.7 0.258 3.014 8.5
H5 73 48.2 3.069 6.88 37.5 0.258 2.963 8.7
H5 75 49.1 3.234 6.59 39.1 0.258 2.859 9.0
H5 76 49.6 3.319 6.44 39.8 0.256 2.807 9.1
H5 78 50.6 3.494 6.15 41.4 0.255 2.699 9.4
H5 80 51.5 3.676 5.85 43.0 0.252 2.587 9.7
H5 85 53.8 4.162 5.09 46.8 0.238 2.294 10.4
H1−6 65 44.5 2.471 84.4 31.0 2.617 35.27 7.4
H1−6 73 48.2 3.069 73.0 37.5 2.736 31.46 8.7
H1−6 82 52.5 3.865 58.3 44.5 2.592 25.95 10.0
two H1−4 73 48.2 3.069 65.6 37.5 2.460 27.70 8.9
ORCs H5,6 73 48.2 3.069 7.6 37.5 0.286 3.27 8.7
H1,4 84 53.4 4.061 27.6 46.0 1.270 12.10 10.5
others 67 45.4 2.611 48.8 32.6 1.590 20.50 7.8
H3,4 93 57.7 5.035 32.3 52.9 1.710 15.00 11.4
others 66 45.0 2.540 40.6 31.8 1.290 17.10 7.5

Figure 6. Effects of evaporator temperature (condenser temperature is kept 30 °C) on (a) working fluid flow rate, (b) net power, (c) total heat
transferred to the working fluid, and (d) outlet temperature of H5 (working fluid n-pentane) .

ΔTmin is taken as 10 °C in the following. Basically, working fluid
is chosen based on the operating temperature of the ORC
compared to the critical temperature of the working fluid. The
operating temperature have to be lower than the critical
temperature. Furthermore, in order to avoid harming turbines
by liquid drops of working fluids condensed through expansion,
the working fluid chosen should be a “dry” fluid, thus the ORC
cycle can be operated with saturated vapor. Besides, there are
some criteria considered such as the safety, the feasibility, etc. In
H DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
this case study, the supply temperature of the six waste hot
streams ranges from 108 to 172 °C, and the target temperature
spreads from 38 to 90 °C. Several dry working fluids can be used
in this case study, such as n-butane, n-pentane, and hexane.
However, the performance of these three working are found
quite similar. Thus, only n-pentane will be illustrated in the
following case study. Besides, it needs to employ a circulating
heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid or the circulating fluid
should be kept in liquid phase under the operating condition,
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Figure 7. Optimized configuration that can maximize the waste heat recovery from H5 where the evaporator and the condenser temperatures are 73 and
30 °C, respectively.
Figure 8. Optimized configuration that can maximize the waste heat recovery from H1−6 where the evaporator and the condenser temperatures are 73
and 30 °C, respectively.
high heat capacity, safe and feasible. However, our work is not
going to focus on the most effective circulating fluid. It is believed
that there is no significant impact from circulating fluid on the
overall net power as soon as we assumed the waste heat is
transferred perfectly from hot streams to the ORC. For example,
Dowtherm A19 is one of synthetic organic fluids from
DOWTHERM company that is a promising heat transfer fluid
including indirect applications. It is used widely in many
industries such as oil and gas, plastic processing, chemical
processing, solar energy industries. Dowtherm A heat transfer
fluid is a eutectic mixture of two very stable compounds, biphenyl
(C12H10) and diphenyl oxide (C12H10O). The temperature range
of Dowtherm A is suitable for our case study, from 15 to 400 °C
in liquid phase. Another choice for circulating heat transfer fluid
is Therminol products by Eastman Chemical company.20
Therminol provides a high performance and stability in systems
with operating temperature from −115 to 400 °C. And many
other suitable commercial heat transfer fluids could be chosen
based on economic consideration.
The solution procedure is based on the proposed optimization
flowsheet, as shown in Figure 4. To simply the solution strategy,
two design variables, the evaporator and condenser outlet
temperatures, are determined out of the MINLP problem P1
where the relevant thermodynamic parameters of the ORC
system can be calculated explicitly. After gaining the results from
the MINLP model, it needs to check the results under different
evaporator and condenser outlet temperatures to find the final
optimized results.
Before undertaking the whole preheat train example, the
H5(kerosene) stream is used to investigate the impact of
evaporator and condenser outlet temperatures on the ORC
I DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Article
performance, especially the overall net power. One can expect
higher heat load if the condenser can be operated at lower
pressure and temperature. In this study, the cooling water
temperature is assumed to be 20 °C and the minimum
approaching temperature is 10 °C, thus the lowest possible
condenser outlet temperature will be 30 °C. Table 2 depicts
some numerical results where Tcm,out is kept its lowest possible
value, 30 °C, and Tem,out varies from 65 to 85 °C. As the evaporator
temperature increases, the power generated by the turbine and
thus the specific net power per unit working fluid flow rate also
increase. However, the total heat transferred to the working fluid
and thus the working fluid flow rate decrease. The total net power
is a product of the working fluid flow rate and the specific net
power. Even though the total net power is a weak function of the
evaporator temperature within the range in between 70 and 80
°C, the conditions of Tcm,out = 30 °C and Tem,out = 73 °C give the
maximum net power (Pnet = 0.258 MW). Further to Table 2,
Figure 6 also shows some of these relations. Figure 7 illustrates
the optimized configuration that can maximize the net power
based on the recovered waste heat from H5. In the testing on
single waste hot stream H5, the waste heat recovered from H5 is
allowed to vary freely, as shown in Table 2. It is noted that the net
power for a given amount of heat input into the cycle, i.e., the
thermal efficiency in power generation, is 8.7% when Tem,out = 73
°C, which is much lower than 10.4%, the efficiency for Tem,out = 85
°C. However, the total heat recovered for the former case is 2.963
MW, which is much higher than 2.294 MW for the latter
scenario. The resulting total net power for the former case, 0.258
MW is a little higher than that for latter scenario, 0.238 MW.
These results and other data in Table 2 show that maximization
of thermal efficiency will definitely result in different
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

Figure 9. Three configurations that use two sets of ORC to recover waste heat from H1−6.

recommendation, and maximizing the total net power should be When the waste heat of streams H1−6 is recovered
more meaningful in this study. simultaneously by using the proposed ORC model, Table 2
J DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

shows the effects of evaporator temperature on the ORC
performance. The resulting net power is a weak function of the
evaporator temperature, and Tcm,out = 30 °C and Tem,out = 73 °C
give the maximum net power. Figure 8 illustrates the optimized
operating condition that can maximize the net power generated
from the recovered waste heat from H1−6. Therein, the total
waste heat recovered is 31.48 MW (4.90, 7.98, 7.43, 7.98, 2.86,
and 0.31 MW from H1−6), the generated net power is Pnet =
2.736 MW, and the overall efficiency is 8.7%. The yearly
generated electricity is 22 GWh if the total operating period is
8040 h.
For more details, Figure 8 is described as follows: There are six
hot streams going to be recovered the waste heat. Each of hot
stream will transfer heat with a circulating fluid that is split to
meet the requirement of proper heat recovery. For example,
there is 4.90 MW of heat from the hot stream H1 that will be
taken by a part of the circulating fluid. This part of circulating
fluid that participates in heat transfer with H1 is equal to 19.2% of
the total flow rate of the circulating fluid used in this
configuration. Since the H1 releases 4.90 MW of heat, its
temperature decreases from 120 to 90 °C, and the heat
transferred to a part of circulating fluid makes the temperature
of this part increases from 71.6 to 110 °C. Every different part of
circulating fluid transferring with each different hot stream has
the same initial temperature that is 71.6 °C, but different final
temperature because of the different amount of heat taken from
different hot streams. After all splitting streams of the circulating
fluid take the waste heat from hot streams, they are mixing
together adiabatically to reach the temperature 119 °C. The
circulating fluid then delivers all 31.5 MW heat taken from hot
streams to the ORC working fluid to relax the temperature itself
down to 71.6 °C before splitting to run around collecting waste
heat again. The ORC working fluid receives 31.5 MW waste heat
to vaporize into 73 °C vapor. This high-pressure vapor drives the
turbine to produce 2.78 MW power and becomes a 48.2 °C low-
net power. The last design can contribute 24 GWh per year. Note
that the change of the process pinch leads to the change of the
hot-stream inlet temperature in this model. Because the waste
heat recovery is applied at below the pinch area, the hot-stream
inlet temperature will increase when the process pinch increases,
and vice versa. Therefore, it can be said that the study on the
group of hot-stream temperature mentioned above reflects the
impact of the process pinch point. Further detailed economic
analysis is required for making a fair decision on the installation
of the ORC system for recovering waste heat from the refinery
process.
6. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Even though the thermoeconomic feasibility and the inherent
tradeoffs of waste heat recovery using ORC has been well
established for a variety of applications, a brief calculation on
economic performance of the ORC which is integrated with a
stand-alone HEN is shown in this work. This brief economic
analysis is to show the feasibility of waste heat recovery using
ORC, as well as to have a rationale for the selection of waste heat
recovery configuration. However, note that it is not going to
show the total economic performance of the whole system. HEN
is not taken into account, instead, the attention is paid to the
installation of ORC including capital costs of heat exchangers,
turbines and pumps; operating costs, as well as the money-based
benefits obtained. Also noted that the following economic
analysis is based on several ideal assumptions, such as 100% heat
exchanger effectiveness. The results of economic analysis need
further consideration in practical application. The total capital
cost (TCC) for implementing the ORC system on an existing
HEN is calculated according to the following equation, based on
the size of units:22
⎧ ⎫β
TCC = ∑ ∑ CV⎨
⎪ qir (1/hi + 1/hr )
⎬
⎪

pressure vapor. Then, this vapor is condensed to a 30 °C low- i∈0 r∈9

⎪ in out in out 1/3
⎩ [dtir dtir (dtir + dtir )/2 + δ] ⎭
⎪

pressure liquid by transferring 28.7 MW heat to cooling utilities.

⎧ qic(1/hi + 1/hc ) ⎫β
The low-pressure liquid then is compressed by a pump driving by + ∑
⎪

∑ CV⎨ in out in ⎬
⎪

0.04 MW power to become a 30.2°C high-pressure liquid. This out 1/3

⎩ [dtic dtic (dtic + dtic )/2 + δ] ⎭
⎪ ⎪

i∈0 c∈*
high-pressure liquid is ready to evaporate by receiving heat 31.5
⎧ ⎫β
MW of heat from the circulating fluid, completing the organic + ∑ ∑
⎪ q (1/hr + 1/hm)
CV⎨ in outrm in ⎬
⎪

out 1/3
Rankine cycle. All of variables will be solved by GAMS for each ⎩ [dtmrdtmr (dtmr + dtmr )/2 + δ] ⎭
⎪ ⎪

r∈9 m∈4
case of ORC working condition identified by (Tem,out; Tcm,out).
⎧ qmc(1/hm + 1/hc ) ⎫β
One can note that the initial and final target temperatures of + ∑ ∑ CV⎨
⎪

⎬
⎪

in out in out
these six waste hot streams are quite different. It is possible to m∈4 c∈* ⎩ [dtmcdtmc (dtmc
⎪
+ dtmc )/2 + δ]1/3 ⎭ ⎪

enhance the efficiency of the ORC-integrated heat recovery 576

process if those hot streams can be grouped according to some
characteristics and recovered by using different sets of ORC
operated under different conditions. Figure 9 shows three
possible configurations that uses two ORCs to recover waste heat
from H1−6. In Figure 9a, H5 and H6 are allocated into one
group due to their lower target temperatures. The resulting net
powers from group 1 (H1−4) and group 2 (H5 plus H6) are
2.460 and 0.286 MW, with efficiencies 8.9% and 8.7%,
respectively. Detailed numerical results are also shown in Table
2. In Figure 9b, H1 and H4 are categorized into one group due to
their higher target temperatures. The resulting net powers from
group 1 (H1 plus H4) and group 2 (remaining streams) are 1.270
and 1.590 MW, respectively. In Figure 9c, H3 and H4 (group 1)
are recovered by one ORC due to their higher initial
temperatures. The remaining streams are categorized into
group 2. The resulting net powers from these two groups are
1.710 and 1.290 MW, respectively, which give the highest overall
K DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
+ ∑ {[C P0FBM]mturbine
394 m∈4
+ [C P0(1.89 + 1.35FPFM)]mpump } (44)
where CV = 1650 is an area cost coefficient for a heat exchanger
where the heat transfer is implemented between two streams; h is
called out as a film heat transfer coefficient for each of hot or cold
side of a heat exchanger; δ is a very small value to ensure the
mathematically feasible meaning of the equation; the power of β
= 0.65 is a parameter indicating the economy of scale, one of rules
used for an estimate of the capital cost for a unit (usually it takes a
value within 0.6 to 0.9). For cost estimate of pump and turbine,
C0P is a purchased equipment free-on-board cost (i.e., equipment
cost at a manufacture’s site) at base conditions, which depends
on the power consumed or generated by pump or turbine,
respectively. The following correlations are used for estimate of
purchased equipment free-on-board cost21
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

Table 3. Cost, Revenue, and Payback Years for Various ORC Designs in the Crude Preheat Train Example (Working Fluid n-
Pentane)
h HX pump turbine TCC YR PB
best scenario (kW/m2·K) ($) ($) ($) ($) ($) (y)
1ORC (H1−6) 1.0 1,393,000 88,000 1,792,000 3,273,000 2,200,000 1.49
1ORC (H1−5) 1.0 1,366,000 87,000 1,788,000 3,241,000 2,179,000 1.49
2ORC (H1−6) 1.0 1,519,000 137,000 3,051,000 4,707,000 2,412,000 1.95
1ORC (H1−6) 0.1 6,222,000 88,000 1,792,000 8,102,000 2,200,000 3.68
1ORC (H1−5) 0.1 6,100,000 87,000 1,788,000 7,975,000 2,179,000 3.66
2ORC (H1−6) 0.1 6,785,000 137,000 3,051,000 9,973,000 2,412,000 4.13
1ORC (H1−6) 10 312,000 88,000 1,792,000 2,191,000 2,189,000 1.00
1ORC (H1−5) 10 306,000 87,000 1,788,000 2,181,000 2,168,000 1.01
2ORC (H1−6) 10 340,000 137,000 3,051,000 3,528,000 2,360,000 1.49

⎧ 2.2476 + 1.4965log P t − 0.1618 for turbine
⎪ 10
⎪
⎪ (log10P t)2
log10 C P0 = ⎨
⎪ 3.3892 + 0.0536log P p + 0.1538 for pump
⎪ 10
⎪ (log P p)2
⎩ 10
(45)
In terms of the capital cost estimate for turbine, beside purchased
cost C0P, there is another factor FBM = 3.4, namely bare module
factor, which is identified from a corresponding graph and an
identification number that is typical for each type of turbine and
assumption of carbon steel material.21 For cost estimate of
turbine, it could be more simplistic compared to pump, due to
only this factor needs to be dealt with. For cost estimate of pump,
more parameters and factors need to be specified. Factor FP is
pressure corrected factor which is available if a pump operates at
pressure levels greater than 10 bar; otherwise it is 1 based on the
following correlation21
⎧0 for P e,sat
⎪ build up two ORCs compared to one ORC. It is because of the
⎪ ≤ 10 bar
log10 FP = ⎨ e,sat
⎪− 0.3935 + 0.3957log10 P for P e,sat
⎪ − 0.0023(log P e,sat)2 ≤ 100 bar
⎩ 10 (46)
Another factor for cost estimate of pump is FM = 1.6, material
corrected factor which is also found from a corresponding graph
and an identification number that is typical for each type of pump
and assumption of carbon steel material.21 It has to be noticed
that the number of pumps which will be mentioned soon later is
necessary to be involved in capital cost. Finally, economic
indicators or cost indices are required to convert purchased
equipment cost into one that is accurate for the present time. It is
considered as a time corrected factor. In this work, chemical
engineering plant cost index (CEPCI 394 and 576 for 2001 and
2015, respectively) is referred to adjust for the effects of inflation
through time.
Operating cost of an ORC is simplified that only pumps are
taken into account. As can be seen, there is only a pump is shown
in an ORC operation principle figure. However, there could be
more than one pump installed due to the level of pressure it need
to be reached, particularly two pumps should be recommended if
the pressure ratio is greater than three. In cost estimate, operating
cost of a pump depends on the amount of power need to supply
for operation of the pump. Similarly, an income obtained from an
ORC is also calculated based on the amount of power that
produces from the turbine. For convenience, net power is
introduced as difference between the power generated by a
L DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
turbine and the power consumed by a pump within an ORC. The
yearly revenue (YR) earned from an ORC is expressed according
to the following equation:
YR = C eH yP net
(47)
e
with the unit sale price of electricity C = 0.1 USD/kWh and
yearly operating hours Hy = 8040. Subsequently, pay-back period
(PB) is simply obtained by total capital cost divided by the
income of net power, TCC/YR.
There are two possibilities for application of ORC integrated
with the background process which are investigated in this work.
For each of possibility for application of ORC, there are several
scenarios studied to find out the optimized operating condition
that can maximize the net power produced from recovery of
waste heat. Table 3 reveals the results of payback periods in cases
of integrations of one ORC and two ORCs. Obviously,
expenditure for installation of one ORC 3 273 000 USD for
the background process is expected to be less than construction
of two ORCs 4 707 000 USD. It is shown for the total capital
cost, however, it would be incorrect if one expends double to
differences of the capacities, namely heat transfer area for heat
exchanger and power for pump and turbine, which decide the
capital cost of equipment, instead of installing the same ORCs to
get the waste heat recovery target. There are eight heat
exchangers used for one ORC integrated into the background
process, whereas ten heat exchangers are applied for the use of
two ORCs. As mentioned above, due to the greater-than-3
pressure ratio criterion, 3.7 for one ORC and 3.1 and 6.1 for two
ORCs, each of ORC is suggested employing two pumps for
operation. It is also found reasonable for the yearly incomes.
Note that the operating cost of units is implicitly included in term
of the net power involved in the calculation of yearly income.
Finally, the payback years predicted for each case, around 1.5−2
y, are acceptable.
Based on calculation of capital cost of each component of an
ORC including heat exchanger, pump and turbine, one can
expect that there is a chance to reduce these component costs. It
is easy to recognize that the heat transfer coefficient h could make
some changes on heat exchanger capital cost due to relationship
of which the larger heat transfer coefficient, the smaller heat
transfer area. However, it is not simply linear. It is hard to go into
detail because there are many other factors which should be
taken in account to consider. Generally, heat transfer coefficient
is recommended for further examination. Moreover, in case of
integration of two ORCs, the pressure ratio of the ORC used for
the group of four lower-temperature waste hot streams is almost
3. Hence, there is a chance of reduction in capital cost as well as
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Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research Article

operating cost of pump, then the pay-back period for this case
changes a little to 1.94 y, if one decides to run this ORC with one
pump, there could be more some possibilities of risk although.
Furthermore, among six waste hot streams considered to recover
waste heat, the amount of heat recovered from the 6th hot stream
(H6) seems to be insignificant compared to other streams.
Therefore, it is possible to think of ignoring this stream so that
one can hope the total capital cost could be cut back while the
target of waste heat recovery could still be satisfied. Thus, it is
expected that the pay-back period in this case would be shorter.
Appendix
Useful equations for calculating enthalpy and saturated pressure
are given as follows. Coefficients for calculating these
thermodynamic properties can be found in the literature.23
Enthalpy = Ideal gas enthalpy + Departure enthalpy
H(Tc , Pc , t ) = ΔHIG + HDep
Ideal gas enthalpy
t

Although it could be a trivial difference in this scenario, one could

ΔHIG = ∫T
ref
CpIG dT
find how it works in other situations when improvement is
required in the concept of cost estimate. Departure enthalpy

7. CONCLUSION Dep
t ( ddat ) − a ln⎡ Z + (1 + 2 )B ⎤
H = Rt(Z − 1) + ⎢ ⎥
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is found appealing to further 2 2b ⎣ Z + (1 − 2 )B ⎦
recover a part of the residual energy in the hot process streams Peng−Robinson EOS
and transfer it into useful work when it is applied for a
background process which is a stand-alone heat exchanger V aV
Z= −
network (HEN) among given basic stream inlet and outlet V−b Rt(V + 2bV − b2)
2

information as well as operational limitations. This article aims at

proposing a systematic procedure to design an ORC-integrated or
heat recovery system. A generic representation of a super- 0 = Z3 + (B − 1)Z2 + (A − 3B2 − 2B)Z
structure for heat exchanger network synthesis (HENS) between
all of the waste hot streams with units of a crude preheat train is + (B3 + B2 − AB)
presented at first. This superstructure is then expanded to include where
organic Rankine cycles for recovering residual heat from the heat
surplus zone below the process pinch through assistance of aP bP
A= B=
circulating heat transfer fluid so that it is called indirect ORC- Rt 2 Rt
integrated heat recovery. The waste heat is considered as the
residue heat of total hot process streams after all of possibilities of (RTc)2 RTc
a = 0.45724 α b = 0.0778
process-to-process matches as well as external utilities. Thus, use Pc Pc
of ORC on recovering waste heat from the remaining of waste
hot streams will not increase the consumption of utilities ⎡ ⎛ ⎛ t ⎞0.5⎞⎤
2

compared to a stand-alone HEN without ORC. The ORC- ⎢

α = 1 + κ ⎜⎜1 − ⎜ ⎟ ⎟⎟ ⎥
⎢ ⎝ Tc ⎠ ⎠⎥⎦
integrated heat recovery problem can be formulated as a mixed- ⎣ ⎝
integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem (defined as
P0) . A simplified solution strategy is depicted that the κ = 0.37464 + 1.54226ω − 0.26992ω 2
evaporator and condenser outlet temperatures of an ORC are ⎡ ⎤
optimized then all of operating pressures as well as those ⎛ P sat ⎞
⎢
ω = −log10⎜ ⎟ ⎥−1
thermodynamic properties such as enthalpies and specific latent ⎢ ⎝ P ⎠ ⎥
heats are found quickly. Subsequently, the problem becomes P1 ⎣ c Tr = 0.7 ⎦

with the design objective is to maximize the net power between Tr = reduced temperature
the power generated and consumed through the turbine and
−0.5⎡ ⎛ ⎛ t ⎞0.5⎞⎤
pump while a number of variables for this problem are reduced
da κR2Tc ⎛ t ⎞ ⎢
due to those defined above. Several cases of ORC integration to = − 0.45724 ⎜ ⎟ 1 + κ ⎜⎜1 − ⎜ ⎟ ⎟⎟⎥
the background process are investigated. The outlet temperature dt Pc ⎝ Tc ⎠ ⎢⎣ ⎝ ⎝ Tc ⎠ ⎠⎥⎦
of the condenser is found that the lower it is, the more efficiently
the ORC works. Hence, Tcm,out = 30 °C is chosen because the Antoine equation
cooling utility temperature is assumed to be 20 °C and the
⎛ D ⎞
minimum approaching temperature is 10 °C. It is shown that log10(P sat) = D1 − ⎜ 2
⎟
there is 2.736 MW of net power obtained at conditions of Tcm,out = ⎝ T + D3 ⎠
30 °C and Tem,out = 73 °C in case of one ORC integrated into the
process. However, when two ORCs are applied with difference
groups of waste hot streams, one is grouped due to their higher
initial temperatures, the other one includes all remaining streams,
■ AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
the net power obtained is recorded of 3MW. Therefore, it is more *Tel.: 886-2-33663039. Fax: 886-2-23623040. E-mail: CCL@
informative that an economic analysis reveals 1.49 and 1.95 y of ntu.edu.tw.
payback of the two foregoing cases for further consideration of Notes
selection on a proper ORC-involved waste heat recovery system. The authors declare no competing financial interest.
M DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank the Ministry of Science of ROC for
supporting this research under Grant NSC102-2221-E-002-
216-MY3.
■
NOMENCLATURE
Indices and Sets
c ∈ * = {1, ..., C}, cooling utility
i ∈ 0 = {1, ..., I}, waste hot process stream
m ∈ 4 = {1, ..., M}, working fluid in an ORC
r ∈ 9 = {1, ..., R}, circulating fluid for heat transfer
x* = set of unknown variables, * ∈ {0, 1, 2}
Ω* = searching space, * ∈ {0, 1}
Parameters
Cpr = specific heat of circulating heat transfer fluid r
FCi = heat capacity flow rate for waste hot stream i
Lm* = specific latent heat of working fluid m in evaporator/
condenser (* ∈ {e, c})
P*m ,sat = saturated pressure in evaporator/condenser (* ∈ {e,
c})
Ti,† = inlet/outlet († ∈ {in, out}) temperatures of waste hot
stream i
T*m,† = inlet/outlet († ∈ {in, out}) temperatures of working
fluid m in * ∈ {e, c, t, p}
Q† = lower and upper bounds († ∈ {L, U}) of heat load
Γ = upper bound for temperature difference
ΔH*m = specific enthalpy change of organic working fluid m
around * ∈ {e, c, t, p}
ΔTmin = minimum approach temperature difference
Binary Variables
z* = 1, * ∈ {ir, rm, ic, mc} denotes existence of a unit
Positive Variables
dt†* = * ∈ {ir, rm, ic, mc}, input and output († ∈ {in, out})
temperature difference at hot and cold exits of heat exchangers
HEir, Erm, Cic, or Cmc
f * = * ∈ {r, m}, mass flow rate of circulating fluid r and working
fluid m
fc*m = heat capacity flow rate of working fluid m in evaporator/
condenser (* ∈ {e, c})
q* = * ∈ {ir, rm, ic, mc}, heat load in heat exchanger HEir,
evaporator Erm,condenser Cic or Cmc
rhir, rcir = split ratio of hot waste stream i and cold circulating
fluid r in heat exchanger HEir
rhrm, rcrm = split ratio of hot circulating fluid r and cold working
fluid m in evaporator Erm
ti = temperature of waste hot stream i after implementation of
heat recovery
tr,† = input and output († ∈ {in, out}) temperatures of
circulating heat transfer fluid r
thir, tcir = temperature of waste hot stream i and cold circulating
fluid r at exit of HEir
thrm = temperature of hot circulating heat transfer fluid r at exit
of evaporator Erm
Ptm = power generated by turbine with organic working fluid m
Ppm = power consumed by pump with organic working fluid m
λerm = specific latent heat of organic working fluid m in
evaporator Erm
λcmc = specific latent heat of organic working fluid m in
condenser Cmc
Λem = overall latent heat of organic working fluid m in
evaporators
N DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.5b03381
Article
Λcm = overall latent heat of organic working fluid m in
condensers
■
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