Lecture-III Basics of Pinch Analysis - 2

Bahir Dar Institute Faculty of
of Technology Chemical and Food Engineering
Lecture –III
Pinch Analysis and Process Integration
2014 E.C Nigus Gabbiye Habtu (PhD)

Heat Exchanger Networks
❑ Why Does Pinch Analysis Work?
▄ Conventional Approach
▪ Problem and Solution/Design
▄ Approach in Pinch Analysis
▪ Energy Targets and Solution/Design
─ Role of Thermodynamics
─ The Composite and Grand composite curves
─ The problem table Algorithm
▪ Capital and Total Cost Targets
24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 2

What is pinch analysis?
• The analysis of the heat exchanger network:
– First identifies sources of heat (termed hot streams)
The material
– Second identifies sources of sinks (termed cold streams) and energy
balance.
▪ Targets can be set for the heat exchanger network to assess the performance of the
complete process design without actually having to carry out the network design.
▪ These targets allow both energy and capital cost for the heat exchanger network to be
assessed.
▪ The targets allow the designer to suggest process changes for the reactor and
separation and recycle systems to improve the targets for energy and capital cost of the
heat exchanger network
24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 3

What is Pinch ? Conceptually!!!!
• When designing heat exchangers and other unit operations, limitations
imposed by the first and second laws of thermodynamics constrain
what can be done with such equipment.
– For example, in a heat exchanger, a close approach between hot
and cold streams requires a large heat transfer area.
Pinch point

• Likewise, in a distillation column, as the reflux ratio approaches the
minimum value for a given separation, the number of equilibrium
stages becomes very large.
• .
• The intersection of an operating line and the equilibrium curve

is called a pinch point

• Whenever the driving forces for heat or mass exchange are small, the
equipment needed for transfer becomes large and it is said that the
design has a pinch.
• When considering systems of many heat- or mass-exchange devices

(called exchanger networks), there will exist somewhere in the
system a point where the driving force for energy or mass exchange is
a minimum. This represents a pinch or pinch point.
• The successful design of these networks involves defining where the

pinch exists and using the information at the pinch point to design the
whole network. This design process is designed as pinch technology
• The concepts of pinch technology can be applied to a wide
variety of problems in heat and mass transfer
1. Heat exchanger networks (HENs)
2. mass-exchanger networks (MENs)

• What is the difference between the two reactor systems??
– the way in which the heat exchange takes place

DME Reactor Feed and Effluent Heat Exchange System
a) Without Heat Integration, b) With Heat Integration
• The savings received over the life of the plant by using heat integration are (–
471,000 + 1,636,000) = $1,165,000!
The heat integration saves money in two ways:
(1) The cooling water utility is reduced and the high-pressure steam is eliminated,
(2) Heat exchanger E-203 is smaller because the duty is reduced, and E-202 is also
smaller due to the fact that hps condenses at 254°C

Practical Example
❑ Flowsheet representing a traditional design
❑ Chemical Process/Plant
❑ Heat Exchanger Network
▪ Steam (Hot Utility) = 1652 + 70 = 1722 kW
▪ Cooling Water (Cold Utility) = 654 kW
▪ Number of Units = 6
❑ Alternative design generated by Linnhoff

et al. (1979) using pinch analysis
❑ Pinch Analysis – HEN Design with Targets
▪ Steam = 1068 kW
▪ Cooling Water = 0 kW
▪ Number of Units = 4
❑ Reduction:
▪ Steam = 1722-1068 = 654 kW
▪ CW = 654 kW
▪ Units = 2
▪The alternative flowsheet uses only four heat transfer “units”

and the utility heating load is reduced by about 40%

▪ The pinch point is the location in

the heat exchanger where the
temperature difference between
hot and cold fluid is minimum at
that location. The pinch point is
important for
analyzing heat transfer in
thermodynamic cycles
• The general algorithm is presented to give the minimum number of

exchangers requiring the minimum utility requirements for a given
minimum approach temperature.

▪ Pinch analysis is a methodology for minimizing energy consumption of

chemical processes by calculating thermodynamically feasible energy
targets (or minimum energy consumption) and achieving them by
optimizing heat recovery systems, energy supply methods
and process operating condition
▪ The first key concept of pinch analysis is setting energy / temperature

targets. “Targets” for energy reduction have been a key part of energy
monitoring schemes for many years.
▪ Typically, a reduction in plant energy consumption of 10% per year is
demanded.
➢ Pinch analysis is based on straightforward thermodynamics, and uses it in a

practical way. However, the approach is largely non-mathematical.

Basic concepts of pinch analysis system
Consider this process(chemical reactor system with heating & cooling
requirements)
Definitions:
▪ The feed, which starts cold and needs to be heated
up, is known as a cold stream.
▪ The hot product which must be cooled down is called
a hot stream.
Stream information
Mass Specific heat Hheat Initial Final/Target Heat Load

flowrate capacity capacity Temperature Temperature H(kW)
W(kg/s) Cp (kI/kgK) flowrate Ts(oC) Ts(oC)
Cp (kW/K)
Cold stream 0.25 4 1.0 20 200 -180
Hot stream 0.4 4.5 1.8 150 50 +180
❑ How do you supply those heat loads??

▪ By external heating and cooling! What else???

Can we reduce energy consumption?
▪ Yes; if we can recover some heat from the hot stream and use it to
heat the cold stream in a heat exchanger, we will need less steam
and water to satisfy the remaining duties.
Cold stream ▪ Ideally we can

extract all of
180kW to heat the
cold stream
Heat stream
▪ This is not possible because of temperature limitations.

▪ By the Second Law of Thermodynamics, we can’t use a hot stream at
150°C to heat a cold stream at 200°C!

▪ How much energy can we extract?

▪ How big should the exchanger be
▪ What will be the temperatures around it?

• Basic concepts of heat exchange: The temperature–enthalpy
diagram:
➢ the slope of the line

representing the stream is: For constant CP

Basic concepts of pinch analysis system:
The temperature–enthalpy diagram:
• The general algorithm is presented to give the minimum number of
exchangers requiring the minimum utility requirements for a given minimum
approach temperature.
1. Choose a minimum approach temperature. This is part of a
parametric optimization
2. Construct a temperature interval diagram.
3. Construct a cascade diagram, and determine the minimum utility

requirements and the pinch temperatures.
4. Calculate the minimum number of heat exchangers above and below

the pinch.
5. Construct the heat-exchanger network
It is important to remember that the objective of this exercise is to obtain a heat-exchanger

network that exchanges the minimum amount of energy between the process streams and
the utilities and uses the minimum number of heat exchangers to accomplish this

The temperature–enthalpy diagram
• How big the heat

exchanger will determine
the overall cost
T/H diagram with ΔTmin 0°C

➢ The T/H diagram can be used to represent heat exchange:
➢ For feasible heat exchange between the two, the hot stream must at all
points be hotter than the cold stream, vis versal is also true

The temperature–enthalpy diagram:
T/H diagram with ΔTmin 20°C
▪ The cold stream is shifted on the H-axis
relative to the hot stream so that the
minimum temperature difference, ΔTmin is
20°C.
▪ The effect of this shift is to increase the

utility heating and cooling by equal
amounts and reduce the load on the
exchanger by the same amount – here 20
kW – so that 70 kW of external heating
and cooling is required
Two basic facts are emerge.

1. There is a correlation between the value of ΔTmin in the exchanger and the total utility load
on the system. This means that if we choose a value of ΔTmin, we have an energy target
for how much heating and cooling we should be using if we design our heat exchanger
correctly.
2. If the hot utility load is increased by any value α, the cold utility is increased by α as well. As
the stream heat loads are constant, this also means that the heat exchanged falls by α.

The composite Curve(Multiple streams)
▪ To handle multiple streams, we add together the heat loads or heat capacity
flow rates of all streams existing over any given temperature range.
▪ A single composite of all hot streams
▪ A single composite of all cold streams can be produced in the T/H
diagram,
Add up
Where:
▪ The resulting T/H plot is a single
∆H1 = CPA(T1-T2); ∆H2 = (CPA +CPB+ CPC)(T2-T3); curve representing all the hot
streams, known as the hot
∆H3 = (CPA+CPC)(T3-T4); ∆H4 = (CPA(T4-T5)
composite curve
➢ A similar procedure gives a cold composite curve of all the cold streams in a problem

Basic concepts of pinch analysis system: The composite
Curve(Multiple streams)
Example -1: A typical pair of composite curves for the four-stream given in Table
below.
Note:- Although there are many

streams in the problem, in
general ΔTmin occurs at only one
point of closest approach, which
is called the pinch (Linnhoff et
al. 1979).

Basic concepts of heat exchange: The composite
Example -2: Flowsheet with two hot streams and two cold streams
ΔH=27 MW
ΔH=-30 MW
Feed 2 230ºC
Product 2
Reactor 2
140ºC
200ºC 80ºC
ΔH=32 MW
Off Gas
Feed 1 Reactor 1 40ºC
20ºC 180ºC 250ºC
ΔH=-31.5 MW
▪ Can you generate the 40ºC

Coln
composite curve?
Product 1
o Total hot streams heat duty=61.5 MW (Surplus) 40ºC
o Total cold streams heat duty=59 MW (Deficit)

Formation of Hot and Cold composite curves
Strea Type
m
no.
#1 Cold 20 180 32 0.2
#2 Hot 250 40 -31.5 0.15
#3 Cold 140 230 27 0.3
#4 Hot 200 80 -30 0.25
250 250
200 200
PINCH
PINCH
150 150
Cold composite curve Hot composite curve Cold composite curve
Hot composite curve
T, C
T, C
o
o
o
Tmin=10 C Tmin=20 C
o
100 100
50 50
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
H, MW H, MW
MW 10= QCmin QRecovery=51.5 QHmin =7.5 MW MW 14= Q QRecovery=47.5 QHmin =11.5 MW
Cmin
o Overlap between the composite curves represents the maximum amount of heat recovery possible
o Overshoot at the bottom represents the minimum amount of external cooling required
o Overshoot at the top represents the minimum amount of external heating required

➢ There are in fact three possible ways of moving the hot and cold composite
curves closer together by ΔTmin, so that they touch at the pinch.
1. Express all temperatures in terms of hot stream temperatures and increase

all cold stream temperatures by ΔTmin.
2. Express all temperatures in terms of cold stream temperatures and reduce

all hot stream temperatures by ΔTmin.
3. Use the shifted temperatures, which are a mean value; all hot stream
temperatures are reduced by ΔTmin/2 and all cold stream temperatures are
increased by ΔTmin/2.
➢ Approach 3 has been the most commonly adopted, we will follow for
designing of the heat exchanger network

Basic concepts of pinch analysis system: The Problem Table
Algorithm
▪ Composite curves can be used to set energy targets, they are
inconvenient since they are based on a graphical construction. A method
of calculating energy targets directly without the necessity of graphical
construction is called the Problem Table Algorithm
▪ The problem table is the name given by Linnhoff and Flower to a

numerical method for determining the pinch temperatures and the
minimum utility requirements; Linnhoff and Flower (1978).
▪ It is the preferred method, avoiding the need to draw the composite

curves and maneuver the composite cooling curve using, for example,
tracing paper or cut-outs, to give the chosen minimum temperature
difference on the diagram.

Basic concepts of pinch analysis: The Problem Table
Algorithm
The procedure follows
1. Convert the actual stream temperatures Tact into interval
temperatures Tint by subtracting half the minimum temperature
difference(ΔTmin) from the hot stream temperatures, and by
adding half to the cold stream temperatures:
Example: Table 2: Interval temperatures for ∆Tmin = 10°C
The use of the interval temperature rather than the actual temperatures allows the
minimum temperature difference to be taken into account. ∆Tmin = 10oC for the
problem being considered;
Basic concepts of pinch analysis : The Problem Table
Algorithm
(a) Driving forces not feasible within each interval. (b) Heat transfer within temperature intervals now feasible.
➢ The amount that can be recovered depends on the relative slopes of the
two curves in the temperature interval.
➢ This problem can be overcome if, purely for the purposes of construction, the
hot composite is shifted to be ∆Tmin /2 colder than it is in practice and that the
cold composite is shifted to be ∆ Tmin /2 hotter than it is in practice as shown
in Figure b. The shifted composite curves now touch at the pinch.

Algorithm
2. Rank the interval temperatures in order of magnitude, showing the

duplicated temperatures only once in the order(Note any duplicated
interval temperatures., these are bracketed in Table 1); see Table 2.
3. Carry out a heat balance for the streams falling within each temperature
interval: For the nth interval:
Where:-

Algorithm
Table 2: Ranked order of interval temperatures
Note: Duplicated temperatures are omitted. The interval ∆T and streams

in the intervals are included as they are needed for Table 3
Table 3: Problem table
Note: The streams in each interval are given in Table 2.

Algorithm
4. “Cascade” the heat surplus from one interval to the next down the column of interval
temperatures; see figure below.
Figure 1: Heat cascade
What is the pinch temperature??
137.5 kW
▪ The presence of a negative value in the column indicates that the temperature gradient is in the wrong
direction and that the exchange is not thermodynamically possible.
5. Introduce just enough heat to the top of the cascade to eliminate all the
negative values; see Figure 1b.

Algorithm
• Example 2:
Table3: Heat exchange stream data for the flowsheet
Figure: A simple flowsheet with two

hot streams and two cold streams.
∆Tmin/2 = 5OC
Table 4: Shifted temperatures for the data from Table 3

Algorithm
➢ Rank the interval temperature based
on the shifted temperature!!!!
1st interval , 1 stream
2nd interval , 2 streams
3rd interval , 3 streams
4th interval , 4 streams

Algorithm
• Heat balance within each shifted temperature interval.

• Some of the shifted intervals are seen to have a surplus of heat and some have a
deficit

Algorithm
QHmin = 7.5 MW
➢ cascade any surplus heat
down the temperature
scale from interval to
interval. This is possible
because any excess heat
available from the hot
streams in an interval is hot
enough to supply a deficit
in the cold streams in the
next interval down.
QCmin = 10 MW.
▪ Some of the heat flows in Figure(a) are negative, which is infeasible. Heat cannot be
transferred up the temperature scale.
▪ To make the cascade feasible, sufficient heat must be added from hot utility to make the
heat flows to be at least zero. The smallest amount of heat needed from hot utility is the
largest negative heat flow from Figure (a), that is 7.5 MW.

Basic concepts of pinch analysis : Grand composite
curve (GCC)
▪ If the composite curves are re-plotted on axes of shifted temperature, we obtain the
shifted composite curves,(see figure). The shifted curves just touch at the pinch
temperature, and show even more clearly than the composite curves that the pinch
divides the process into two.
▪ Shifted hot and cold composite curves
There is an imbalance which must be supplied by utilities – external heating and cooling.
▪ Above the pinch, ΔQC > ΔQH and the difference must be supplied by hot utility.
▪ Below the pinch ΔQH < ΔQC and the excess heat is removed by cold utility.

Basic concepts of pinch analysis: Grand composite
curve (GCC)
.
▪ It represents the difference between the heat available from the hot streams and the
heat required by the cold streams, relative to the pinch, at a given shifted
temperature.
Grand composite curve(GCC)
180 Net Heat Shifted
Heat duty 20 kW
flow(kW) Temperature(oC)
160
0
140
60 25
75 55
Shifted temperature(oC)
120 0 85
82.5 140
100
80 145
Pinch T(s) = 850C 20 165
80
60
▪ The Problem Table and its graphical
representation, the GCC, give the same
40
results (including the pinch location) more
20
Cooling duty 60 kW easily.
0
▪ Energy targeting is a powerful design and
0 20 40 60 80 100
Net heat flow(kW) “process integration” aid.

Algorithm
▪ Three golden rules for the designer wishing to produce a
design achieving minimum utility targets
▪ Don’t transfer heat across the pinch.
▪ Don’t use cold utilities above the pinch.
▪ Don’t use hot utilities below the pinch.
Home Take Exercise
▪ Calculate the hot and cold composite curves, Problem Table, GCC, hot and
cold utility targets and pinch temperature for the following problem at a global
ΔTmin of 10°C, using a calculator, your own spreadsheet (See Table).

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Bahir Dar Institute Faculty of

of Technology Chemical and Food Engineering

2014 E.C Nigus Gabbiye Habtu (PhD)

▪ Problem and Solution/Design

▄ Approach in Pinch Analysis

▪ Energy Targets and Solution/Design

─ The Composite and Grand composite curves

─ The problem table Algorithm

▪ Capital and Total Cost Targets

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 2

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 3

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 4

• The intersection of an operating line and the equilibrium curve

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 5

• When considering systems of many heat- or mass-exchange devices

• The successful design of these networks involves defining where the

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 6

– the way in which the heat exchange takes place

a) Without Heat Integration, b) With Heat Integration

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 7

❑ Alternative design generated by Linnhoff

▪The alternative flowsheet uses only four heat transfer “units”

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 8

▪ The pinch point is the location in

• The general algorithm is presented to give the minimum number of

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 9

▪ Pinch analysis is a methodology for minimizing energy consumption of

▪ The first key concept of pinch analysis is setting energy / temperature

➢ Pinch analysis is based on straightforward thermodynamics, and uses it in a

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 10

Mass Specific heat Hheat Initial Final/Target Heat Load

Cold stream 0.25 4 1.0 20 200 -180

Hot stream 0.4 4.5 1.8 150 50 +180

❑ How do you supply those heat loads??

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 11

Cold stream ▪ Ideally we can

▪ This is not possible because of temperature limitations.

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 12

▪ How much energy can we extract?

▪ What will be the temperatures around it?

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 13

➢ the slope of the line

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 14

2. Construct a temperature interval diagram.

3. Construct a cascade diagram, and determine the minimum utility

4. Calculate the minimum number of heat exchangers above and below

5. Construct the heat-exchanger network

It is important to remember that the objective of this exercise is to obtain a heat-exchanger

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 15

• How big the heat

T/H diagram with ΔTmin 0°C

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 16

▪ The effect of this shift is to increase the

Two basic facts are emerge.

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 17

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 18

Note:- Although there are many

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated Process Design by Nigus Gabbiye(PhD) 19

▪ Can you generate the 40ºC

o Total hot streams heat duty=61.5 MW (Surplus) 40ºC

o Total cold streams heat duty=59 MW (Deficit)

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 20

24/02/2022 Lecture on Integrated process Design by Nigus Gabbiyev(PhD) 21