Accepted Manuscript

Optimization of Waste Heat Recovery Power Generation System for Cement

Plant by Combining Pinch and Exergy Analysis Methods

Tao Han, Chang'an Wang, Chenzhao Zhu, Defu Che

PII: S1359-4311(17)31537-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.05.039
Reference: ATE 12178

To appear in: Applied Thermal Engineering

Received Date: 6 March 2017

Revised Date: 6 May 2018
Accepted Date: 9 May 2018

Please cite this article as: T. Han, C. Wang, C. Zhu, D. Che, Optimization of Waste Heat Recovery Power Generation
System for Cement Plant by Combining Pinch and Exergy Analysis Methods, Applied Thermal Engineering (2018),
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.05.039

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 Optimization of Waste Heat Recovery Power Generation System for

Cement Plant by Combining Pinch and Exergy Analysis Methods

Tao Han, Chang'an Wang, Chenzhao Zhu, Defu Che*

State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, School of Energy and Power

Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-29-82665185 ; fax: 86-29-82668703.
E-mail address: dfche@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
Abstract

Waste heat recovery power generation system (WHRPGS) plays a significant role in

cement plants for its contribution to the electricity supplement. Optimization of

WHRPGS is very challenging when the WHRPGS is coupled with the cement

producing system (CPS). In this paper, a new simplified model was proposed to

characterize the integrated system (involving WHRPGS and CPS). By combining

pinch analysis and exergy analysis methods, the energy process of the integrated

system was studied in details. In particular, pinch analysis was used to qualitatively

evaluate the improvement potentiality of the integrated system, while exergy analysis

was employed to quantitatively evaluate the power generation capacity of the

WHRPGS. By reducing the heat transfer across pinch points and exergy destruction

of the integrated system, an optimized mode of WHRPGS was identified and the

power generation capacity of it can be increased by 7.559% theoretically. The

optimized WHRPGS was applied in a 2500 t·d-1 clinker production line in Northwest

China. Comparing the operational results of WHRPGS in original and optimized

modes for 24 hours respectively, the power generation capacity of the optimized

system was increased by 4.96% on average.

Key words: waste heat recovery, model, pinch analysis, exergy analysis, cement plant,

power generation
1 Introduction

Waste heat recovery power generation system (WHRPGS) is widely employed in

cement industry because it supplies about 30% of the total electricity consumption of

a cement plant and has significant contribution to the profits [1-2]. Numerous studies

have been carried out to improve the WHRPGS. Zhang et al. [3] analyzed three

typical models of conventional WHRPGS and illustrated that the exergy efficiency of

dual-pressure steam system was 1-2% higher than others. Zhang et al. [4] further

optimized the steam parameters for a dual-pressure steam system of WHRPGS in a

new dry process cement plant. Shang [5] and Zhang et al. [6] studied and optimized

the air supply system in WHRPGS. Fergani et al. [7] investigated three organic

Rankine cycle systems with different working fluids in WHRPGS and recognized the

optimal working fluid and parameters. According to previous studies, the WHRPGS

was considered as an affiliated system to the cement production system (CPS),

implying that the waste heat should be determined by the operation of CPS and

immutable under given operation conditions. Studies were then conducted with the

principal focuses on WHRPGS regardless of the whole energy system of the cement

plant. Based on the Rankine cycle theory, the optimization potential of WHRPGS was

small and the corresponding improvement was not obvious in most cases. Hence,

comprehensive studies on the whole energy system of cement plant should be carried

out for further optimization of WHRPGS. However, it is difficult to characterize the

whole energy system in cement plant because the plant involves several sub-systems

such as coal mill sub-system, suspension pre-heating sub-system, kiln sub-system,

cooling sub-system and different sub-systems have various or even contradictive

optimization targets during energy optimizations. For example, reducing energy

consumption or heat loss of the kiln sub-system would also give rise to the output

power reduction of the WHRPGS. Therefore, it is indispensable to establish an

appropriate model first to characterize the whole energy process in purpose of

improving WHRPGS without any negative effect on the CPS.

While appropriate model is established, pinch technology can be employed to

analyze the energy processes of the integrated system involving WHRPGS and CPS.

Pinch technology was an effective tool for thermodynamic analysis of complex

industry processes and had been widely applied in various fields, targeting energy

sector planning [8], regional energy allocation [9], energy consumption or recovery

[10-12], system efficiency [13-14], feed water supply [15] and even air pollution

controlling [16]. Recently Bonhivers et al. [17] linked pinch analysis and bridge

analysis to save energy in heat exchange network retrofitting, Gadalla [18] proposed a

novel graphical technique to serve for grassroots design, further developing this

technology. According to pinch analysis, all energy streams involved in the integrated

system can be divided into hot streams and cold streams. The corresponding hot and

cold composite curves of the energy streams can be established by a

temperature-enthalpy diagram based on the heat transfer theories. Then studies would

be carried out by varying the pinch point values or heat transfer amount across the

pinch point. Upon the pinch analysis of the integrated system, the irrationality of the

energy transformer or transformation processes can be revealed and an optimal mode

of the integrated system can be identified.

Nevertheless, pinch technology is insufficient to analyze the integrated system

since the integrated system contains both heat transfer and heat-power transformation

processes [19]. Both quantity and quality of the heat in the integrated system should

be evaluated simultaneously during the study. Energy quantity can be described by

pinch analysis exactly, while energy quality should be evaluated by exergy analysis on

the other hand. Exergy analysis was considered as a powerful tool for power cycles

because it can determine the true magnitude of heat losses and the causes along with

locations [20]. Combining pinch analysis with exergy analysis was also developed as

a new method to help understanding thermodynamic and heat transfer networks

simultaneously [21]. With this new method Khaljani et al. [22] conducted a

comprehensive analysis of energy, exergy and exergo-economic of cogeneration

power cycle, Ebrahimi et al. [23] completed an integrated energy–exergy optimization

of a novel micro-CCHP cycle, Nazari et al. [24] completed a Multi-objective

optimization of a combined steam-organic Rankine cycle, Quijera et al. [25] assessed a

dairy process integrated with thermosolar as one of energy sources, respectively. It

was indicated by numerical studies that exergy analysis was a significant

supplementary research approach to pinch analysis while analyzing complex systems.

Combining pinch analysis with exergy analysis methods can be helpful to optimize

the integrated system more effectively.

In this paper, a simplified model for the integrated system including both WHRPGS

and CPS was built by comprehensively taking into account the whole energy system
of the cement plant. The simplified model can be used for analyzing the integrated

system and further optimizing the WHRPGS. Based on this simplified model the

disadvantages of the existing integrated system were found out, in particular by

combining pinch analysis with exergy analysis methods. After improving the energy

consumption of the integrated system, an optimal mode of the WHRPGS was

identified. The optimized WHRPGS can bring a significant increase in power

generation capacity when it was applied in a practical cement plant.

2 Modeling WHRPGS coupled with CPS in cement plants

WHRPGS is often coupled with the CPS while being analyzed or optimized since

its heat source is determined by the CPS. Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a

typical WHRPGS coupled with CPS in a cement plant. Two HRSGs are employed as

the key energy recovery units for the WHRPGS. One HRSG is installed in vicinity of

the cooler and defined as air cooler boiler (AQC), the other is installed close to the

5-stage suspension preheater system, and defined as suspension preheater boiler (SP).

According to the heat exchange processes of the two boilers, the energy carrying

streams are mainly hot gas out of the cooler, hot gas out of the 5-stage suspension

preheater, supplied water, steam and ambient air. The hot gas out of suspension

preheater is led to SP for heat exchange first and then returned to the CPS. In normal

operations the temperature and mass flow rate of this gas flow are constant. The hot

gas out of cooler is divided into four parts by different ranges of temperature to be

separately supplied for kiln system, coal mill system, AQC, and electrostatic

precipitator (EP). The part supplied for kiln system is changeless under a given
operation condition, while the rest three parts are adjusted frequently due to the

parameter fluctuations of the CPS. The water or steam streams are determined entirely

by the heat exchange processes in AQC and SP and can be considered as being

adjusted passively. The ambient air stream is added into the coal mill system to help

control the temperature of the supplied hot gas for coal mill. Parameters of the

ambient air are also considered as being adjusted passively. The constant or passively

adjustable streams obviously could not be optimized independently and can be

ignored in the analysis of the integrated system. As a result, the optimization of the

integrated system is mainly concentrated on the gas supplied for AQC and the gas

supplied for coal mill system and a simplified model of the integrated system can be

built correspondingly.

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of WHRPGS in cement plant (EP – electrostatic precipitator, AQC – boiler
for air cooler, SP – boiler for suspension preheater)

In order to exactly describe the simplified model, the processes of the gas supplied

for AQC and coal mill system should be analyzed in details. As shown in Fig. 1, the
gas supplied for AQC is cleaned by a pre-separator and returns to EP (environment)

after finishing heat exchange. The heat loss of the pre-separator is very small

compared to the total heat of the gas and can be ignored in modeling the integrated

system. The gas supplied for coal grinding process is cooled by ambient cold air first

and is discharged into the environment after heating the coal during coal grinding

process. The parameters of the gas leading to EP actually are determined by the

operations of AQC and coal mill system during normal operation. This gas is often

useless due to its low temperature and can be ignored while modeling the integrated

system. Based on above analysis, a simplified model of the integrated system can be

built to provide a basis of optimization of WHRPGS. The simplified model of

WHRPGS in cement plant is illustrated in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 The proposed simplified model of WHRPGS in cement plant

3 Analyzing and optimizing WHRPGS in cement plants

3.1Analysis of heat exchange process in AQC

In accordance with previous studies [3, 5] and the simplified model shown in Fig. 2,
optimization of WHRPGS in cement plant is mainly conducted on the heat exchange

process of AQC. As shown in Fig. 1, AQC is usually designed with dual steam

pressure mode in order to make gradient utilization of the waste heat. According to

the pinch analysis theory of HRSG [26, 27], the hot streams mainly are hot gases, the

cold streams are medium pressure steam (MPS) and low pressure steam (LPS). The

enthalpy variation ∆Hm of the hot or cold streams in each specific temperature interval

can be calculated by Eq. (1).

(1)

where the Cp,I represents thermal capacity, kJ∙kg-1∙ oC-1, qm,i represents mass flow rate,

kg∙s-1, ∆ti represents temperature increment of specific stream i, oC. Considering the

phase change and the large variation of thermal capacity of steam during evaporation

process, the thermal capacities of the streams can be calculated in different intervals

to obtain accurate results. This method is well illustrated by Ran et al. [13, 28] in the

analysis of a thermal power plant. After the ∆Hm of all streams are calculated out, the

hot-cold composite curves can be obtained. The temperature-enthalpy diagram of

AQC is shown in Fig. 3 (solid lines).

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of temperature-enthalpy curves in AQC

 As shown in Fig. 3, there are two pinch points in AQC (marked as ∆t1 and ∆t2)

because the MPS and LPS have respective saturated temperatures. The heat exchange

areas can be divided into three sub-areas by this two pinch points, defined as A (above

the saturated temperature of MPS), B (between the saturated temperatures of MPS and

LPS), C (below the saturated temperature of LPS), respectively. According to the

pinch technology, both of the pinch points should reach the minimum values and there

should be no heat transfer across the pinch points in the optimal design of AQC. With

these viewpoints the heat transfer would reach a balance in each sub-area. While the

pinch points have reached the minimum values, the only way to increase output of

AQC is to add a heat resource into it. Considering the heat balance in each area, the

additional heat can be classified into three types so as to be analyzed separately. The

three types of additional heat are respectively marked as Qh, Qm, Ql in Fig. 3. When

Qh (Qm, or Ql) is added in area A (B, or C), the corresponding qm,i of hot stream will

increase, result in the increment of the corresponding ∆Hm of hot stream. Then in the

specific temperature interval the slope of the hot composite curve would be reduced

and the ∆ti would become larger. In order to make ∆ti reach the minimum value again,

the slope of the cold composite curve should also be increased, implying that the qm,i

of cold stream (MPS or LPS) in this area can be increased. The increment of the qm,i

of cold stream represents the fact that the power generation of WHRPGS can be

increased by adding heat into AQC. The analysis results of each sub-area are shown

as dotted lines in Fig. 3 and the new pinch points are marked as ∆t1’ and ∆t2’.

It should be recognized that not all kinds of the additional heat would increase the
output of AQC. As shown in Fig. 3, when Qh is added into area A the qm,i of MPS

would be increased correspondingly. Similar situation would occurs with Qm and the

qm,i of LPS. In these cases the power generation of WHRPGS is consequentially

increased due to the mass increment of the steams (MPS or LPS). Moreover, in these

cases the slopes of cold composite curves in area C would reduce due to the mass

conservation of cold streams, implying that more heat is required in area C. The

insufficient heat can be supplied by further reducing the gas temperature method.

However, when Ql is added into area C, the slopes of hot streams and cold streams

curves in area B, C are not changed and the pinch points (∆t1 and ∆t2) will be kept at

the minimize values. Then the qm,i of MPS (LPS) would not be increased anymore and

the same to the output of AQC or WHRPGS. This result reveals a fact that heat Ql is

useless to AQC or WHRPGS. Based on this viewpoint, the key effort to increase the

output of AQC is to add the useable heat Qh or Qm rather than the useless heat Ql into

AQC and Qh is preferential due to the higher efficiency of higher pressure steam in

power cycles.

3.2 Optimizing WHRPGS by combining pinch analysis with exergy analysis

As discussed in 3.1, the effective way to increase the output of WHRPGS is to add

useable heat such as Qh or Qm into AQC. This target can be achieved by means of

reasonability analysis and redistribution of energy based on the simplified model

shown in Fig. 2. In accordance with other scholars [19-24], exergy analysis can be

employed to accurately evaluate the energy utilization due to both heat transfer and

heat transformation processes. In this study a practical operation of a typical 2500

t·d-1 cement plant is examined to obtain quantitative results. The current parameters of

relevant hot and cold streams based on the simplified model are calculated in Table 1.

The hot gases are defined as g1 and g2, supplied for AQC and coal mill respectively.

The cold streams include MPS, LPS, cold air and coal. The steams are treated as

non-continuous in every temperature intervals for the different specific thermal

capacities and further for more accurate solutions [28]. Then the enthalpy increment

of each stream can be calculated separately by Equation (1) and the

temperature-enthalpy curves can be obtained. For a better illustration of the analysis,

the temperature-enthalpy curves of integrated system and the individual WHRPGS

defined as original mode are both calculated to make a direct comparison. The results

are shown in Fig. 4.

Table 1 Parameters of relevant hot and cold streams

Mass flow Specific thermal Temperature.

Pressure
Streams rate capacity intervals
(MPa) -1 -1 o -1
(kg·h ) (kJ·kg · C ) (oC)
g1 0.10 155801 1.034 380-90
Hot
g2 0.10 19395 1.005 90-65
4.330 40-198
1946.290 198-199
MPS 1.50 9650
2.635 199-260
2.255 260-340
Cold 4.249 40-147
LPS 0.45 2400 2120.170 147-148
2.260 148-190
Cold air - 15613 1.018 20-65
Coal - 20000 7.120 20-65
 Fig. 4 Temperature-enthalpy diagram of simplified model

The original system (excluding g2) can be considered as a normal heat transfer

process of an independent AQC, which has been discussed in 3.1. In a mature design

of AQC, the pinch temperature differences ∆t1 and ∆t2 have been optimized to reach

the minimum values. However, when g2 is coupled with g1, the slope of hot streams

curve will reduce and the new pinch temperature differences ∆t1' and ∆t2' would

become larger, indicating that the heat transfer process is not optimal in this situation.

The temperature of g2 is entirely higher than the saturated temperature of MPS, so it

can be defined as Qh and has large potentiality to increase the output of AQC.

Moreover, g2 is used to heat coal and cold air under current operation, according to

pinch technology it represents the fact that heat transfer across pinch points occurs

(marked as Qacr in Fig. 4). Qacr should be furthest reduced in an optimal heat exchange

system, so optimization of WHRPGS can be carried out to make efforts on reducing

Qacr in this sense. In addition, minimizing cold air amount could also reduce Qacr.

Besides, it also can be seen in the current operation that g2 is cooled down by ambient

cold air before entering coal mill for its excessive high temperature. Similar to the
situation in the power cycles in which the largest exergy destruction always occurs in

furnaces [29], directly cooling process between hot and cold streams often represents

exergy destruction and larger temperature difference represents larger exergy

destruction. So this cooling process would give rise to exergy destruction and should

be avoided to the greatest degree. Reducing exergy destruction can be recognized as

optimization of WHRPGS in some extent. Based on these analyses, the best way to

reduce Qacr is to use both g2 to produce MPS first and then to be supplied for coal mill

with lower temperature in downstream of AQC. The improved mode of the simplified

model is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Improved mode of the simplified model

However, it should be emphasized that the improved model must have little

negative effect on cement production. It has been already confirmed from the cement

plant that temperature of the gas supplied for coal mill should be higher than 220 oC

and the mass flow rate of the gas should be not less than 35000 kg·h-1. When g2 is

used in AQC to produce MPS, it would be extracted out to the coal mill when its
temperature reduces to about 220 oC. The mass flow rate of g2 could not meet the

requirement of the coal mill for the ambient cold air is not added in g2 anymore in this

case. additional hot gas should be extracted from g1 to supplement this mass shortage.

By this way the mass flow rate of the rest gas (marked as gm) in AQC would become

smaller than g1. This process can be illustrated in Fig. 4 by reducing or increasing the

slope of hot composite curve above 220 oC or below 220 oC correspondingly. To keep

the minimum values of ∆t1 and ∆t2, in this case qm of cold streams above 220 oC

(MPS') can be increased and qm of cold streams below 220 oC (MPS' + LPS') should

be decreased on the other side. Considering the mas conservation of MPS, actually the

qm of LPS is decreased. Due to the higher efficiency of MPS in power generation, the

output of WHRPGS is then increased and WHRPGS is optimized in this sense. The

temperature-enthalpy diagram of the optimized WHRPGS based on the improved

mode of the simplified model is expressed in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 Temperature-enthalpy diagram of optimized WHRPGS

4 Theoretical calculation results

 By the similar method illustrated by Rosen et al. [30], the quantitative results of the

optimized WHRPGS in the typical cement plant which has been illustrated in 3.2 can

be calculated by Equation (2).

- - - (2)

where Ei represents the exergy value of stream i, kW, hin,i and hout,i represent the

enthalpy of stream i while stream i entering and exiting the system, kJ∙kg-1, Sin,i and

Sout,i represent the entropy of stream i while stream i entering and exiting the system,

kJ∙kg-1∙oC-1, qm,i represents the mass flow rate of stream i, kg∙s-1, T0 represents the

thermodynamic temperature of environment, oC, stream i corresponds to the hot gases

supplied for AQC. The results of both original and optimized WHRPGS are listed in

Table. 2. According to the results, the power generation capacity of optimized

WHRPGS is increased by 7.559%.

Table 2 Exergy calculation results of original and optimized system

Parameters Original system Optimized system

Clinker yield, t·d-1 2750 2750

Coal mill yield, t·h -1 20 20

Production
conditions
Ambient Kelvin temperature, K 293.150 293.150

Standard density of gas, kg·Nm-3 1.293 1.293

Flow rate,Nm3·h-1 105000 120000

Kelvin temperature, K 654.150 654.150

Gas entering
AQC
Enthalpy, kJ·kg-1 663.710 663.710

Entropy, kJ·kg-1·k-1 7.668 7.668

Supplementary
Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 - 27000
gas extracted to
 Parameters Original system Optimized system

coal mill
Kelvin temperature, K - 493.150

Enthalpy, kJ·kg-1 - 496.400

Entropy, kJ·kg-1·k-1 - 7.375

Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 105000 93000

Kelvin temperature, K 363.150 348.150

Gas exiting
AQC
Enthalpy, kJ·kg-1 363.990 348.800

Entropy, kJ·kg-1·k-1 7.063 7.020

Exergy, kW 4617 4966

Exergy increment, % - 7.559

5 Case study of the optimized WHRPGS

The optimized WHRPGS was applied in a practical cement plant in Northwest

China by retrofitting the original system. The retrofit work involved flow gas

pipelines and the operating modes of WHRPGS and CPS. The retrofitted system was

switchable to original system so as to ensure cement production safety in any case.

Theoretical calculation of the gas parameters in optimized WHRPGS was also

performed to make a comparison with operating data and further to help assess the

optimized WHRPGS more exactly. The unmentioned parameters of WHRPGS and

CPS in the calculation remained unchanged on each run and each run lasted for 24

hours. The results are listed in Table. 3.

Table 3 Parameters of original system and optimized system

Original system Optimized system

Parameters
operating
operating theoretical

Inlet of AQC Temperature, oC 381 381 381

 Original system Optimized system
Parameters
operating
operating theoretical

Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 105496 119462 119462

Hot gas to Temperature, oC 381 - -

coal mill Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 16390 - -

Temperature, oC 20 - -
Ambient air
Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 13193 - -

Inlet of coal Temperature, oC 220 230 220

mill Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 29584 29517 29517

Gas extracted Temperature, oC - 220 220

from AQC Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 - 29517 29517

Gas outlet of Temperature, oC 91 76 71

AQC Flow rate, Nm3·h-1 105496 89945 89945

Pressure, MPa 1.60 1.60 1.60

MPS of AQC Temperature, oC 340 340 340

Mass flow rate, t·h-1 9.65 11.35 12.21

Pressure, MPa 0.45 0.45 0.45

LPS of AQC Temperature, oC 180 180 180

Mass flow rate, t·h-1 2.43 1.61 1.42

Pressure, MPa 1.60 1.60 1.60

MPS of SP Temperature, oC 310 310 310

Mass flow rate, t·h-1 12.31 12.31 12.31

Average power during 12 hous, kW 4231 4441 4550

Power increment, % - 4.96 7.54

It can be found from Table. 3 the average power generation capacity of the

optimized WHRPGS is increased by 4.96%, which is much smaller than theoretical

results under the same operation condition. The shrinkage may be mostly attributed to
the differences of mass flow rates of MPS and LPS on each run. Compared with

theoretical results, the mass flow rate of MPS in operating is decreased by about 0.85

t·h-1, while the mass flow rate of LPS is increased by 0.19 t·h-1. The shortage of MPS

implies that in practical operation the qm of MPS could not reach the maximum value

and the pinch point ∆t1 (shown in Fig. 3) could not reach the minimum value.

However, the qm of LPS is higher than its anticipant value on the other hand. These

results indicate that the areas of evaporator and super heater for MPS in AQC are

insufficient to make full use of the additional heat resource (g2) and more heat

exchange occurs in the downstream of AQC. The temperature differences of the

extracted gas from AQC to coal mill and the flow gas outlet of AQC between

theoretical and operating modes also support this viewpoint, implying that the AQC is

not fit for the retrofitted system. Significant parameters including gas temperatures at

inlet and outlet of AQC, steam mass flow rates of MPS and LPS of AQC, power

generation of WHRPGS by average value per each hour are illustrated in Fig. 7, Fig. 8

and Fig. 9, respectively. Although there are fluctuations of parameters on every runs,

the increasing tendency of power output can be obtained. Figure 7 shows the gas

temperature fluctuations in both original and optimized system, and the outlet gas

temperatures in optimized system is always lower, implying an increment of thermal

efficiency of AQC. Figure 8 and Figure 9 validate the improvement of optimized

system in other parameters, including mass flow rates of steams in AQC and power

output of the WHRPGS.

 Fig. 7 Gas temperature of AQC in original and optimized systems during 24 hours

Fig. 8 Steam average mass flow rates of AQC in original and optimized systems during 24 hours

Fig. 9 Average power generation of original and optimized WHRPGSs during 24 hours
 The projects of optimized WHRPGS in this cement plant mainly includes

modifications of AQC wall, installations of hot gas pipe from AQC to coal mill (45 m

long, 1000 mm diameter) and valves, upgrades of cement production and power

generation control systems. All the retrofitting works took about two weeks and the

total cost was about RMB 400000 yuan.

According to the operating data in Tab. 3 and Figs. 8-9, the power generation

increased about 210 kW on average. The electricity price is RMB 0.6 yuan / kWh and

the operation time is about 6000 hours per year. Thus, the modified WHRPGS would

provide RMB 756000 income for the cement plant annually. The pay-back period for

the modified system is about 0.53 year (about 6 months).

6 Conclusions

In present study, the waste heat recovery power generation system (WHRPGS) in

cement plants was comprehensively optimized. A simplified model was built to

characterize the integrated system involving WHRPGS and cement production system

(CPS), in which the unimportant or unchangeable sub-systems were ignored. Based

on the simplified model, the energy process of the integrated system was investigated

with combining pinch analysis with exergy analysis methods, and an optimal mode of

WHRPGS was identified by reducing heat transfer across pinch points and exergy

destruction. Calculation results indicated that the power generation capacity of the

optimized WHRPGS can be increased by 7.559% for a typical cement plant.

Moreover, the practical application of the optimized WHRPGS in a cement plant

illustrated that the power generation capacity was increased by 4.96% while air
quench cooler boiler (AQC) was not retrofitted.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Key R&D Program

of China (2017YFB0602003).
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Table captions:

Table 1 Parameters of relevant hot and cold streams

Table 2 Exergy calculation results of original and optimized system

Table 3 Parameters of original system and optimized system

Figure captions:

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of WHRPGS in cement plant (EP – electrostatic precipitator,

AQC – boiler for air cooler, SP – boiler for suspension preheater)

Fig. 2 The proposed simplified model of WHRPGS in cement plant

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of temperature-enthalpy curves in AQC

Fig. 4 Temperature-enthalpy diagram of simplified model

Fig. 5 Improved mode of the simplified model

Fig. 6 Temperature-enthalpy diagram of optimized WHRPGS

Fig. 7 Gas temperature of AQC in original and optimized systems during 24 hours

Fig. 8 Steam average mass flow rates of AQC in original and optimized systems

during 24 hours

Fig. 9 Average power generation of original and optimized WHRPGSs during 24

hours
Highlights:

 A simplified model of WHRPGS in cement plants was derived.

 The WHRPGS was optimized by combining pinch analysis with exergy analysis
methods.
 Heat transfer across pinch points and exergy destruction were reduced.
 The output of the optimal system was increased by 4.96% in practical
application.