0263±8762/97/$10.00+0.

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q Institution of Chemical Engineers

AN AUTOMATED AND INTERACTIVE APPROACH FOR

HEAT EXCHANGER NETWORK RETROFIT
N. D. K. ASANTE (GRADUATE) and X. X. ZHU
Department of Process Integration, UMIST, Manchester, UK

T
his paper combines mathematical optimization techniques with a better understanding
of the retro® t problem, based on thermodynamic analysis and practical engineering, to
produce a systematic procedure capable of ef® ciently solving industrial size retro® t
problems. The major characteristic of the approach presented is that it offers a systematic and
automatic method for the retro® t design of heat exchanger networks (HENs), combined with a
facility for meaningful user interaction.
The new procedure employs a two-stage approach for retro® t HEN design: The ® rst stage is
the diagnosis stage, during which a minimum number of promising HEN topology modi-
® cations is obtained which enables a desired heat recovery target to be achieved. In the second
stage, the optimization stage, the HEN obtained after implementation of the modi® cations is
optimized using non-linear optimization techniques to minimize the cost of additional surface
area employed.
It has been observed that heat recovery in a HEN is thermodynamically limited by certain
exchanger matches unavoidably tending to a zero degree temperature approach as the heat
recovery increases. These exchanger matches, which are termed as pinching matches, act as a
bottleneck to heat recovery in the HEN. To increase the potential for heat recovery beyond the
limits caused by the pinching matches, the network topology must be altered by repiping of
exchangers, addition of new exchanger matches or creation of stream splits.
Based on the above observation, the diagnosis stage is made up of two steps. In the ® rst step
the HEN bottleneck is identi® ed, and in the second step a mixed integer linear programming
(MILP) formulation is used to select a single modi® cation which will best overcome the
identi® ed bottleneck. These two steps are repeated in a loop to yield the required set of
promising topology modi® cations.
Keywords: retro® t; heat exchanger networks; mathematical programming; network pinch;
pinch technology

INTRODUCTION estimates, however, the cost estimates produced are often

The Retro® t Design Problem
Heat exchanger network (HEN) designs usually feature a
high degree of operational ¯ exibility, however some of the
subsequent changes made to the operation of processes are
so severe that they require retro® t of the original HEN.
These changes may involve process debottlenecking,improve-
ment in process energy ef® ciency or changes to process feed
or products. In all these cases, the retro® t objective is to
produce a cost-effective HEN design, subject to any design
and operating constraints, which is suitable for the new
operating conditions.
There are normally several alternative retro® t design
solutions for a given HEN retro® t problem, and the iden-
ti® cation of the most suitable design from these alternatives
is an important aspect of the design task. In theory, the
optimum design is the one with lowest total cost, and the
main components of this cost are the cost of additional area
and the cost of topology modi® cation (such as repiping or
relocating exchanger units). In practice, however, this total
cost cannot be accurately calculated during the HEN design
phase, and various methods of estimating this cost must be
employed. Due to the assumptions made in generating these
349
too crude to reliably identify the optimum retro® t HEN
design.
Another limitation of cost estimates is that they cannot
re¯ ect unquanti® able design considerations such as safety
and operability. Thus in practice, engineering judgement
and experience are used to assess the desirability of each
retro® t design on the basis of these design considerations. In
order to directly generate practical and operable designs,
however, this judgement must be applied during the design
process, and this can only be achieved with an interactive
design procedure.
It can be concluded from the above discussion that the
estimated retro® t cost cannot be used as the sole criterion for
determination of the optimum HEN design. In addition, it
can be concluded that an interactive design procedure is
essential for the production of practical and operable designs,
as this allows the designer to in¯ uence the design process
with his perception of the relevant design considerations.
Existing HEN Retro® t Methods
Current methods for HEN retro® t design use either Pinch
techniques or Mathematical Programming techniques. HEN
350 ASANTE and ZHU
design using pinch methods consists of a targeting stage and
a design stage. During the targeting stage, optimal targets
for heat recovery and exchanger area requirement are deter-
mined, whilst in the design stage a set of rules and design
tools are used to manually design the retro® t HEN to achieve
the targets. In contrast to this, mathematical programming
techniques formulate the design problem as a mathematical
model using a set of equations or constraints including an
objective function. This objective function is generally an
estimate of the retro® t HEN cost, and it acts as a measure of
the optimality of the retro® t design. The HEN problem is
then solved by using mathematical optimization techniques
to determine the retro® t HEN design with the lowest total
cost, subject to the other constraints.
The ® rst pinch retro® t design procedure was proposed by
Tjoe and Linnhoff1 and introduced the concept of area
ef® ciency of heat exchanger networks. The method assumes
that the area ef® ciency, a , of the retro® t HEN is equal to that
of the existing HEN, and this assumption is used to set
targets for design. The design phase itself is conducted
manually using extensions of the pinch design rules2 . Sil-
angwa3 proposed an extension to Tjoe’ s targeting technique
for cases were the area ef® ciency of the original HEN was
small, and Polley et al.4 modi® ed Tjoe’ s targeting method
by introducing a relationship between pressure drop and
heat transfer coef® cients to enable the area targets generated
to re¯ ect pressure drop limitations in the process.
The main limitation of the targeting approaches based on
the area ef® ciency concept is that the area targets they
produce do not re¯ ect the area distribution within the HEN.
Shokoya and Kotjabasakis5 proposed a technique which
overcame this limitation by incorporating the area distribu-
tion of the existing HEN into the targeting mechanism. This
techniques also provided additional guidance for the design
task, and enabled the generation of retro® t HEN designs
which were demonstrably simpler than those obtained using
the method of Tjoe and Linnhoff1 .
Carlsson et al.6 proposed a method based on pinch tech-
nology in which the cost of exchanger area, piping and
auxiliary equipment, pumping and maintenance associated
with each potential match, is used to construct a cost matrix.
This cost matrix is then used together with a set of rules
(including some from pinch technology) to perform the
design. As no targeting is performed in this method, the
capital-energy trade-off is evaluated by producing several
designs at varying heat recovery levels.
Most recently, Van Reisen et al.7 introduced a method for
decomposing the original HEN into a number of subnet-
works, so as to reduce the size of the design problem and
favour the generation of simple retro® t designs. Each of the
subnetworks generated by the decomposition is screened
using pinch targeting techniques to identify the subnetworks
which would yield the most cost-effective retro® t. The sub-
networks thus identi® ed then become the subject of retro® t
design to which any of the previously discussed design
methods can be applied.
Early applications of mathematical programming to the
retro® t problem8 ,9 were based on the grassroots scenario
and thus the cost of modifying the existing topology was
not considered in the HEN cost estimates used. However,
dedicated retro® t techniques were later developed which
contained explicit expressions for the costs of topology
modi® cations.
Ciric and Floudas1 0 proposed a two-stage approach con-
sisting of a match selection stage, and an optimization stage.
The match selections stage used a mixed integer linear
programming (MILP) formulation to simultaneously select
process stream matches and match exchanger assignments
for the retro® t HEN, and the exchanger loads obtained in
this stage remained ® xed during the rest of the design
procedure. The optimization stage then used a non-linear
programming (NLP) formulation to optimize the matching
order and ¯ ow con® guration of the exchanger matches.
These two stages were later1 1 combined into a single stage,
using a mixed integer non-linear (MINLP) formulation to
simultaneously optimise all aspects of the network.
Yee and Grossmann1 2 provided an alternative approach
which also had two stages, in this case however a targeting
or pre-screening stage and an optimization stage were used.
The pre-screening stage was used to determine the optimal
heat recovery level and assess the economic feasibility of
the retro® t design. However only the number of new units
required to achieve the `optimum’ investment determined
was carried forward to the optimization stage. During the
optimization stage, the heat recovery level was allowed to
vary and an MINLP formulation was used to simultaneously
optimize the capital-energy trade-off and all the network
parameters.
Discussion of Existing HEN Retro® t Methods
The main advantage of pinch methods lie in the user
interaction provided, whilst their main drawbacks are that
they involve potentially time consuming manual proce-
dures, and produce solutions whose quality largely depends
on the designer’ s experience and judgement in applying the
pinch rules and guidelines. In addition, since pinch methods
do not explicitly account for the cost of structural changes
implemented in the retro® t design, they potentially gener-
ate complex designs. The approach of Carlsson et al.6
tackles this limitation, but its dependence on accurate piping
and other cost data for each potential match could in some
cases make it impractical; as considerable effort would be
required to generate the necessary data for a moderately
sized industrial process. The Van Reisen et al.7 decomposi-
tion could help to reduce the time required to generate pinch
designs, but the effort required to investigate the alternative
subnetworks could be considerable where large HENs are
involved.
In contrast to this, the mathematical methods reviewed
have the advantage of being automated procedures, and the
drawback of providing little scope for user interaction. In
addition, as they all use cost minimization as their optimi-
zation objective, they are limited by the two main short-
comings of the cost estimates used in the models. The ® rst
of these shortcomings relates to the area cost estimates.
Although the area cost estimates used in the models assume
that additional area is provided as new exchanger shells, the
additional area can in reality be provided in other ways, each
of which features a different cost. These include the replace-
ment of original tube bundles with new tube bundles con-
taining a greater number of more closely packed tubes, as
well as the use of heat transfer enhancement devices in the
exchanger tubes. The second limitation is that all the models
assume that the cost of moving or repiping an exchanger is
independent of the exchanger involved, however this cost
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
 AN AUTOMATED AND INTERACTIVE APPROACH FOR HEN RETROFIT
depends among other things on the distance and complexity
involved in the piping change. Although this assumption
avoids the need to determine modi® cation costs for every
possible topology change, the resulting estimates produced
cannot reliably differentiate between cheap and costly top-
ology changes, and this introduces a potential for selecting
non-optimal topology changes.
The mathematical methods reviewed also require expen-
sive computation to generate solutions, but due to limita-
tions of non-linear programming techniques, the solutions
they produce have a signi® cant probability of being non-
optimal. This is a consequence of the nature and complexity
of the HEN retro® t problem, and cannot be mitigated by
using more accurate models of the retro® t problem. Conse-
quently, none of the mathematical approaches described
offers a viable method for solving even moderately sized
industrial HEN retro® t problems.
From the above discussion, it is clear that none of the
current methods is able to solve large industrial problems in
an automated procedure, whilst retaining user interaction
and control of the solution process. The new approach pre-
sented in this paper, however, achieves this by harnessing
the strengths of both pinch and mathematical approaches,
and this has been made possible by new insights gained into
the behaviour of HENs.
NEW INSIGHTS
Limits in HEN Topologies
In most cases, the heat recovery achieved in a HEN can
be improved by addition of area to some exchangers in the
network. However, when this area is added without altering
the HEN topology, it has been observed that the potential for
heat recovery improvement often falls short of the full
potential existing within the process. This suggests the pre-
sence of a heat recovery limit within the HEN topology,
which is independent of the area of the individual exchanger
units in the network. This will be illustrated using the
concept of composite curves.
Composite curves as shown in Figure 1 provide a graphi-
cal representation of process stream data. The minimum
vertical separation between the composite curves is the
global D T m i n or heat recovery approach temperature (HRAT)
of the process, whilst the overlap of the two curves gives the
heat recovery achieved in an ideal HEN. This heat recovery
increases as the global D T m i n is reduced, until the absolute
minimum D T for feasible heat transfer of 08 is reached. The
maximum energy recovery achievable in the process thus
Figure 1. Composite curves.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
351
identi® ed can only be achieved by a HEN with in® nite
exchanger area.
The grid representation of a simple HEN and the cor-
responding process composite curves with a heat recovery
of 40 MW are shown in Figure 2. The composite curves in
Figure 3a identify the maximum heat recovery achievable in
the process as 60 MW, and, as shown in Figure 3b, this level
of heat recovery also produces a 08 temperature approach in
the process exchanger of the network.
The HEN in example 2 (Figure 4) is more complicated;
the composite curves shown in Figure 5a identify the
maximum energy recovery for the process as 250 MW.
However, as seen in Figure 5b, the network topology can
only achieve a maximum recovery of 220 MW, irrespective
of the area added to the network. If the topology is altered,
as shown in Figure 5c, a heat recovery of 235 MW can be
achieved, and this exceeds the heat recovery limit (Rm a x ) of
the original topology. This demonstrates that the heat
recovery limit, Rm a x , is associated with the topology of the
HEN. The network from example 2 at its Rm a x can be
superimposed on the composite curves, as shown in
Figure 6. Each thick line in this ® gure represents the tem-
perature pro® le of a hot stream in an exchanger. Wherever
one of these thick lines touches the cold composite curve,
a 08 temperature approach exists between hot and cold
streams in that exchanger, and such an exchanger match is
termed as a pinching match.
A pinching match is de® ned as an exchanger match in
which the temperature approach between hot and cold
streams unavoidably tends towards a limiting value as heat
recovery in the HEN is increased. Although the temperature
approach limit used in the examples is 08 , any positive
temperature approach limit may be used. Pinching matches
identify the location of the network pinch or bottleneck as
shown in Figure 7. It must however be emphasized that
increasing the exchanger area of pinching matches or of
other exchangers in the network will not overcome the
network pinch, as the bottleneck in this case is not caused by
a capacity limit.
The Network Pinch
The network pinch divides the HEN into a heat de® cit
Figure 2. Original HEN performance for example 1.
352 ASANTE and ZHU

Figure 3. Maximum heat recovery condition for example 1.

Figure 5. a and b. Maximum heat recovery condition for example 2.

sink and a source in heat surplus, in a manner analogous to

the well established process pinch from pinch technology. In Retro® t Curves
addition, given a minimum temperature approach between
Retro® t curves provide a graphical representation of
hot and cold streams, the network pinch de® nes the heat
capital-energy trade-off in retro® t design, and simply con-
recovery limit for a particular HEN topology within a given
sist of a plot of a retro® t target on a graph of exchanger area
process. This is analogous to the way in which the process
against utility demand. This graphical representation of
pinch de® nes the heat recovery limit of a process.
retro® t targets, shown in Figure 8, was ® rst proposed by
The difference between the network and process pinches
Tjoe1 and is used to illustrate the effect of the network pinch
however, is that the network pinch is a characteristic of both
on exchanger area requirement in HEN retro® t.
the process streams and the HEN topology, whilst the pro-
As discussed previously, various retro® t area targets may
cess pinch is a characteristic of the process streams alone.
be determined using existing pinch techniques. Achieving
Consequently, changes in the topology of a process HEN
any of these area targets in design may, however, require
would generally affect the network pinch, but leave the
signi® cant modi® cation of the original HEN topology, and
process pinch unchanged. Although the process and net-
in situations where the HEN topology cannot be altered,
work pinch locations may coincide, they are usually distinct
these targets are therefore of little use. In such cases, the
and different as in example 2 (Figure 6).
retro® t target for `zero topology modi® cations’ can be de® ned
It is important to note that the network pinch is not
as the minimum additional exchanger area required to
dependent on the installed area of the HEN, and as such any
achieve any feasible heat recovery without altering the HEN
increase in the installed area of exchangers in the HEN has
topology.
no effect on its location. It can, however, be demonstrated
Although repeated optimization runs are required to
that the network pinch impacts on the minimum exchanger
determine the retro® t target for `zero topology modi® ca-
area requirement of the HEN in which it occurs.
tions’ over a range of heat recovery duties, a qualitative
sketch of the corresponding retro® t curve can be produced
once the Rm a x of the topology is known. By de® nition, the
curve starts at the point where area and heat recovery equal
that of the original HEN, and ends with in® nite area at the
point with heat recovery equal to the Rm a x of the topology.
The retro® t curve can thus be sketched using these two
points, as shown in Figures 9 and 10 for examples 1 and 2
respectively.

Figure 4. Original HEN performance for example 2. Figure 5c. Impact of a topology change on the network limits.

Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997

 AN AUTOMATED AND INTERACTIVE APPROACH FOR HEN RETROFIT
Figure 6. Representation of example 2 HEN at Rmax on composite curves.
For the simple HEN of example 1, the ideal targets and
Tjoe’ s constant alpha targets are identical, and can be achieved
by adding area to the single process-process exchanger in
the HEN. Since no topology modi® cation is required, this
target also corresponds to the `zero topology modi® cations’
target. This is, of course, a trivial example, and as shown in
Figure 9, the resulting retro® t curves are coincident. This
indicates that the ideal and constant alpha target can be
achieved without modi® cation of the original HEN topol-
ogy. In contrast to this, Figure 10 indicates that the constant
alpha and ideal area targets in example 2 cannot be achieved
without modi® cation of the original HEN topology.
If, however, a single change to the HEN topology is
allowed, the scope for heat recovery is increased, and the
Rm a x of the original topology can be exceeded. This creates
a new and larger Rm a x , together with a new set of pinching
matches and a new network pinch. The retro® t target for
`one topology modi® cation’ de® nes the minimum addi-
tional exchanger area required to achieve any feasible heat
recovery, without making more than one alteration to the
HEN topology. As can be seen from the corresponding
retro® t curve, illustrated in Figure 10, the trade-off between
area added and energy saved also improves when a topology
change is allowed.
Retro® t targets for any number of topology modi® cations
can be de® ned in a similar way, and as shown in Figure 11
all of these could be plotted as retro® t curves. With each
implementation of topology change, the existing network
pinch is replaced by a new network pinch which features a
new and larger Rm a x , and an improved area-energy trade-
off. This illustrates that the network pinch not only limits the
potential for heat potential, but also constrains the trade-off
between area added in the retro® t design and the resulting
savings in energy.
Not all topology changes produce a positive impact on the
Figure 7. The network pinch.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
353
network pinch, and an additional bene® t of the network
pinch concept is that it helps to identify the topology
changes which can produce this positive impact by over-
coming the network pinch limits, and this is of immeasur-
able assistance in the design task.
Overcoming the Network Pinch
Topology changes in a HEN can take the form of repiping
exchangers in the HEN, inserting new exchangers into the
HEN, or creating stream splits within the HEN; and examples
of how each of these can be used to overcome the network
pinch are shown in Figures 12 to 14.
The general rule for identifying topology changes capable
of overcoming a network pinch is that they must move heat
from below to above the network pinch, and this is ana-
logous to the `+/- principle’ of pinch technology2 . Since the
portion of the HEN below the network pinch is in heat
surplus, any topology change which only creates opportu-
nity for heat exchange in the region below the network
pinch will not increase the Rm a x of the topology. The same is
true of topology changes which only enable further heat
exchange above the network pinch.
This rule is rigorous, and provides a valuable means of
screening out topology changes which cannot improve the
heat recovery potential of a network. It must be noted,
however, that in the special case when the original HEN
features signi® cant `criss-crossing’ (or misapplication of
driving forces) in a region removed from both the process
and network pinches, unproductive changes in terms of heat
recovery, could produce a reduction in exchanger area
requirement.
In most cases, several topology change options capable of
overcoming the network pinch can be identi® ed, and each
Figure 8. Retro® t curves (Tjoe and Linnhoff, 1986)1.
354 ASANTE and ZHU
Figure 9. Retro® t curves for example 1.
one can be assessed on the basis of the increase in heat
recovery potential and improvement of area-energy trade-
off it produces, as opposed to its implementation costs.
However, to enable automation of the procedure, speci® c
criteria for identifying and selecting the best option have
been de® ned.
Selection of Topology Modi® cations
The topology change options to be considered include all
possible options for relocation of existing exchangers,
addition of new exchanger and introduction of stream splits.
Each of these options produces a different trade-off between
heat recovery and exchanger area requirement, and each
option could be represented by a topology speci® c retro® t
curve. The `one topology modi® cation’ retro® t curve can be
plotted together with these topology speci® c curves, as
shown in Figure 15, and by de® nition it forms a lower bound
to all the topology speci® c curves. It can be seen from this
® gure that the topology speci® c curve which deviates least
from the `one topology modi® cation’ retro® t curve, is the
one with the largest heat recovery potential. As this top-
ology change maximizes the potential for heat recovery
and minimizes the overall area penalty incurred, it can be
selected as the most `promising’ topology modi® cation.
This method for identi® cation and selection of topology
changes has several bene® ts.
Firstly, as the method is not based on cost minimization,
cost estimates for topology modi® cations are not required at
the outset of design, and the complicated and time consum-
ing procedure of generating such estimates for all possible
topology changes can therefore be avoided. Instead, any
effort spent in costing topology modi® cations can be focused
on a few promising options identi® ed during the design process.
As cost minimization is not sought, the resulting design
Figure 10. Retro® t curves for example 2.
Figure 11. Retro® t curves for multiple modi® cations.
cannot be guaranteed to be the minimum cost retro® t design.
However, the selection method ensures the generation of
low cost retro® t designs, because each modi® cation selected
is also geared towards improving the trade-off between area
added to the HEN and the energy savings obtained. In
addition to this, the method minimizes the number of top-
ology changes used to achieve any heat recovery objective
by maximizing the heat recovery potential from each top-
ology change; and as the retro® t cost is often dominated by
the cost of the topology changes, this helps to reduce the
overall retro® t cost.
Another bene® t of the method is that it separates the
selection of topology changes from the rest of the HEN
design on an inherently rational basis, and gives the designer
an excellent opportunity to assess topology change options
on the basis of his evaluation of the design trade-offs. This
greatly enhances user interaction with the design process,
and provides a means of rapidly evaluating the retro® t
design options. This selection procedure can be automated,
without the user losing control over the design process, and
in this way it combines the best features of pinch and
mathematical programming techniques.
Identifying Stream Split Opportunities
As shown in Figure 14, stream splitting can increase the
topology Rm a x when two or more adjacent pinching matches
are placed in parallel with each other. This is however
subject to the network pinch rule discussed previously, and
this means that in order to produce an increase in heat
recovery, the stream split must cause the movement of heat
Figure 12. Overcoming the network pinch by exchanger resequencing.
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 AN AUTOMATED AND INTERACTIVE APPROACH FOR HEN RETROFIT
Figure 13. Overcoming the network pinch by insertion of a new exchanger.
from below to above the network pinch. This however only
identi® es stream splitting as a possible option, and not as the
most promising topology change.
Pinch technology identi® es the need for stream splitting
on the basis of the stream population and stream heat capa-
city ratios at the process pinch. This is because the tem-
perature driving forces available between hot and cold
streams are tightest in the region of the process pinch, and
stream splitting often ensures that no D T violation occurs at
the process pinch. Stream splitting has also been shown to
be bene® cial when applied to adjacent pinched exchangers
located at the network pinch.
When a HEN topology at its Rm a x is analysed at the same
heat recovery using pinch technology, the network pinch
and process pinch often do not occur in the same region of
the HEN. As such the process pinch and network pinch often
point to different streams and exchangers for stream split-
ting. When the two pinches do coincide however, both
pinches indicate the same stream splitting option, and in
such cases stream splitting has been found to offer the most
cost-effective retro® t option. This observation sums up the
network pinch stream split heuristic, which states that:
`Whenever adjacent pinching matches occur at coinci-
dent process and network pinches, stream splitting should
be the topology change implemented.’
This heuristic, illustrated in Figure 16, can be used to
identify and select stream splitting options.
A NEW RETROFIT PROCEDURE
Nature of the Method
The discussion so far has provided new insights into the
Figure 14. Overcoming the network pinch by stream splitting.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
355
nature of the retro® t design problem and the speci® c role
played by topology modi® cation in the design task. In
particular, the concept of the network pinch has been shown
to provide guidance for selecting topology changes, and this
forms the basis of the new retro® t procedure.
The new retro® t procedure consists of two stages; namely
a diagnosis stage and an optimization stage as shown in
Figure 17. The diagnosis stage is used to identify and select
optimal topology modi® cations to be made to the original
HEN, and it combines the concepts of pinching matches and
the network pinch described in this paper with mathematical
programming techniques. The resulting HEN topology is
then passed to the optimization stage, where mathematical
programming techniques are used to optimize the topology
and produce the ® nal retro® t design.
A total of four mathematical models1 3 are used in the
procedure, made up of three linear models in the diagnosis
stage, and one non-linear model in the optimization stage.
As illustrated in Figure 18, the linear models are used to
sequentially identify individual topology changes with the
highest potential for heat recovery, whilst the non-linear
model is used to optimize the capital-energy trade-off
within a selected design. Although the linear models are
similar in most respects, they have differences which re¯ ect
their varying objectives, and are signi® cantly different from
those currently published in the literature. A detailed dis-
cussion of these models is beyond the scope of this paper,
and only the main features of each stage will be presented.
The Diagnosis Stage
The diagnosis stage is the `engine’ of the new pro-
cedure, and during this stage the basic topology of the
retro® t HEN design is de® ned and ® xed. It combines the
Figure 15. The one topology modi® cation retro® t curve.
356 ASANTE and ZHU

Figure 16. The stream split heuristic.

Figure 18. The sequential search procedure.

insights developed in this paper with established mathema-
tical programming techniques to yield an automated procedure
for ef® ciently identifying and selecting the topology changes splitting options are only considered when indicated by the
which offer the promise of improved heat recovery with stream splitting heuristic. The user can, of course, modify or
minimal area requirement. override this strategy to investigate other design options, but
The diagnosis stage is designed to identify a single top- the strategy has proved to be both effective and ef® cient in
ology change at a time in a sequential manner, in order to all the retro® t designs carried out to date. The default stra-
provide opportunities for meaningful user interaction. In tegy begins with the identi® cation of the limits in the
contrast with the simultaneous selection of all the topology existing HEN topology, and this is achieved using a linear
changes, this sequential selection procedure may in theory model P1 to push the existing topology to its maximum
yield a `sub-optimal’ set of topology changes. However, a recovery limit (Rm a x ). This process identi® es the pinching
simultaneous selection procedure would offer little or no matches and network pinch in the existing topology.
opportunity for user interaction, and as previously dis- The condition de® ned by the stream splitting heuristic are
cussed, user interaction is an essential component of an then tested for, and stream splitting is implemented if the
industrially acceptable retro® t HEN design procedure. The condition is satis® ed. In the default strategy, provided
use of the sequential selection procedure therefore ensures stream splitting is not indicated, an MILP model (P2) is used
that the topology changes selected correctly re¯ ect the to identify the exchanger relocation option which would
realities, and practical limitations under which the design is produce the largest increase in Rm a x . If this resequence is
produced, rather than provide a numerical optimum with acceptable, another one is sought until no further acceptable
questionable practical signi® cance. resequence options can be identi® ed. After each resequence
The topology changes identi® ed in this stage are the
relocation of exchangers, the addition of new exchangers,
and the parallel streaming of exchangers (i.e. stream split-
ting). The stream split heuristic de® ned in this paper is used
to identify and select stream split options, whilst mathema-
tical programming techniques are used to identify and select
modi® cations involving exchanger relocation and new
exchanger addition. Two mathematical models are used
for selecting topology changes; one for selection of exchanger
addition options and the other for selection of relocation
options, thus simplifying the mathematical models used.
The order in which the topology change options are
considered must, however, be determined, and the default
search strategy illustrated in Figure 19, is de® ned for this
purpose. In this strategy, the search for resequence options is
followed by a search for new exchanger options, and stream

Figure 17. The new retro® t procedure. Figure 19. The default search strategy.

Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997

 AN AUTOMATED AND INTERACTIVE APPROACH FOR HEN RETROFIT
Figure 20. Simpli® ed ¯ owsheet for case study.
is accepted, the stream split heuristic is again applied to
determine whether stream splitting is indicated. After the
resequence options are exhausted, another MILP model (P3)
is used to identify the new exchanger option which would
produce the largest increase in Rm a x . This search also
continues until no further acceptable new exchanger options
can be found, and stream splitting conditions are tested for
after each modi® cation is accepted.
Each topology modi® cation selected by the mathematical
models yields a new Rm a x which is greater than or equal
to the previous Rm a x . However, a threshold value for the
increase in Rm a x is speci® ed as an acceptance criteria. Thus
all topology changes which are unable to produce an
increase in Rm a x greater than or equal to this threshold value
are rejected, subject to the user’ s option of overriding this
decision. Each search for topology modi® cations is con® ned
to the set of modi® cations which are identi® ed by the net-
work pinch rules as being capable of overcoming the
network pinch. In terms of mathematical programming,
this means that the superstructure used for the models is
dynamically generated on the basis of the network pinch
location. This greatly reduces the size of the mathematical
problem and increases the speed with which solutions are
generated.
The designer may wish to consider topology modi® cation
options other than those selected by the default strategy, and
this can be achieved by taking manual control over the
searching procedure. This could lead to the generation of
several alternative solutions, each of which would have
Figure 21. Original HEN before debottlenecking.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
357
Figure 22. Limits of the original HEN in case study 1.
to be submitted to the optimization stage to enable the
identi® cation and selection of the most cost-effective design
from among the alternatives.
The Optimization Stage
As stated previously, the primary function of the optimi-
zation stage is to optimize the HEN topology de® ned in the
diagnosis stage. However, the con® guration and branch
¯ owrates of stream splits in the topology are also de® ned
during the optimization stage. It will be noted that the
diagnosis stage only identi® es the exchanger matches involved
in stream splits, and does not specify any series-parallel
arrangements for the stream split. A small superstructure1 4
derived from the HEN superstructure proposed by Floudas
et al.1 5 is therefore used to optimize the stream splits and
de® ne their con® gurations. The optimization stage is not
however intended to add, delete or move any exchanger
units and consequently the basic network topology remains
® xed.
The optimization stage therefore optimizes the heat
recovery and exchanger area used in the retro® t network,
using cost minimization as the optimization objective. Math-
ematical programming techniques are particularly suited to
this kind of optimization, as the trade-offs involved are too
complex for manual evaluation. In the case where several
design alternatives are to be evaluated, each solution is
optimized separately. In this way the cost penalty or bene® ts
Figure 23. Resequence A, min QH = 98.08, D QREC = 4.4.
358 ASANTE and ZHU
Figure 24. Limits in HEN after resequence.
of each design option can be quickly identi® ed, and the most
suitable design selected.
Although the procedure does not require targeting, targets
obtained from established techniques can be used either as a
design objective, or in the evaluation of the designs pro-
duced. The design procedure however remains independent
of any targeting used in the design process.
Case Study: Debottleneck of a Crude Unit
The retro® t procedure has been implemented in GAMS1 6 ,
and tested on several retro® t HEN design problems. One of
these will be used as a case study to illustrate the strength
and versatility of the retro® t procedure. This example was
® rst introduced by Ahmad et al.1 7 and later used by
Shokoya5 to demonstrate the Area Matrix technique. The
retro® t objective in this example is to debottleneck the HEN
to cope with a 10% increase in crude throughput, and the
main retro® t design constraint is the speci® cation of a
maximum furnace duty of 100 MW.
Figure 20 shows the simpli® ed ¯ owsheet for the process
and Figure 21 shows the grid diagram for the existing HEN.
It must also be mentioned that the crude feed, heavy gas
oil and residue streams have been segmented linearly to
account for the signi® cant changes in the heat transfer
properties of these streams with temperature.
Both previous designs5 ,1 7 are reported at a furnace duty of
Figure 25. Stream split implementation, min QH = 96.30, D QREC
Figure 26a. Retro® t Design A.
99.6 MW, and for purposes of comparison this furnace duty
was used as the heat recovery objective. The minimum
temperature approach permitted in the HEN was set at 108 C,
and the minimum improvement in Rm a x for acceptance of a
topology change option was set at 0.5 MW.
As a ® rst step the limits of the original HEN topology are
established, and this is shown in Figure 22. The furnace duty
at the topology Rm a x is 102.5 MW, and as this is above the
maximum allowable value of 100 MW, it implies that top-
ology changes will be required in the retro® t design.
Exchangers 5 and 6 are pinched at the Rm a x , and although
the Rm a x could be increased by placing these exchangers in
parallel with each other, the conditions of the stream split
heuristic are not ful® lled and hence this is not considered.
The user could, however, override this default and examine
this option. Thus, the ® rst modi® cation option considered
is exchanger repiping, and the option selected by the pro-
cedure is the resequence of Exchanger 4 as illustrated in
Figure 23. This produces a 4.4 MW increase in heat recov-
ery potential, and reduces the minimum furnace duty to
98.1 MW. Since the improvement in Rm a x is greater than
0.5 MW the resequence is accepted.
Although the minimum furnace duty after this resequence
is less than the objective of 99.6 MW, it is quite close to it.
From the discussion of retro® t curves it can be predicted that
design at or close to the topology Rm a x would generally
require the use of excessive exchanger area. Thus another
topology change is sought to further increase the Rm a x , and
consequently reduce the exchanger area required in the
HEN. The topology produced after the resequence of
Exchanger 4 features three adjacent pinching matches
(Exchangers 4, 5 and 6) as shown in Figure 24. As the
= 1.8. Figure 26b. Retro® t Design B.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
 AN AUTOMATED AND INTERACTIVE APPROACH FOR HEN RETROFIT
Figure 27. The search tree for the case study.
® rst of these pinching matches lies at the process pinch, the
process and network pinches have become coincident, and
this ful® ls the conditions of the stream split heuristic. The
search for resequence options is thus interrupted and the
stream split implemented. Exchangers 4, 5, and 6 being the
three adjacent pinching matches, are placed in parallel with
each other to produce a 1.8 MW increase in Rm a x . Once
again this increase is greater than 0.5 MW and the topology
change is therefore accepted. Although the three exchangers
are initially placed in parallel with each other as shown in
Figure 25, the ® nal split con® guration is determined during
the optimization stage.
The search for modi® cations could be stopped at this
point, and the resulting topology submitted to the optimiza-
tion stage. If, however, the search is continued for another
step, the next modi® cation selected is the addition of a new
exchanger. This further increases the Rm a x by 3.9 MW, to
give a minimum furnace duty of 92.4 MW. It is not possible
at this stage to determine whether the addition of the new
exchanger can be economically justi® ed, but the optimiza-
tion stage provides the necessary clari® cation. After optimi-
zation at a ® xed furnace duty of 99.6 MW, the topology
without the new exchanger required 1974 m2 of additional
exchanger area, whilst the one with the new exchanger
required only 1265 m2 . The two retro® t HENs are shown in
Figures 26a and 26b and it can be seen that both feature the
same series-parallel split con® guration.
With this information, the two design options can be
effectively compared to identify the `best’ HEN. The instal-
lation cost of the new exchanger can be fairly accurately
estimated at this stage to assist in the decision process,
Figure 28. Design CÐ the series solution.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997
359
which is much simpler than initiating the design process by
making such estimates for all new exchanger options.
Design options other than the two discussed above can be
investigated by altering the search strategy. These alter-
native design options can be organised into a search tree
as shown in Figure 27. In this ® gure, the default strategy
path is shown in bold, and the results of optimization of
each topology in the search tree at a ® xed furnace duty of
99.6 MW are also shown. The series topology in the search
tree is the topology that the default strategy would have
produced if stream splitting had been forbidden, and this
topology is shown in Figure 28. This series design can
be compared with the other designs involving stream splits,
to assess the bene® t of allowing stream splitting in the
retro® t HEN design. A close look at the exchanger area
requirements of each topology for a furnace duty of 99.6 MW
reveals that the topology modi® cations selected by the default
strategy consistently reduce the exchanger area requirement
of the HEN. This proves that although the search objective
does not explicitly consider area requirement, it nonethe-
less selects topology changes which reduce exchanger area
requirement.
The design produced by using the default strategy (Fig-
ure 26b) is selected to compare with the designs produced
by Ahmad et al.1 7 and Shokoya and Kotjabasakis5 , which
are shown in Figures 29 and 30 respectively. This com-
parison is shown in Table 1, and reveals that the new method
requires the least number of modi® cations to the HEN, and
requires exchanger area which is only marginally larger than
the area matrix method.
Figure 29. Retro® t design by Ahmad et al.17.
360 ASANTE and ZHU
Figure 30. Retro® t design by Shokoya and Kotjabasakis5 .
CONCLU DING REMARKS
In this paper, a completely new method is proposed for
the retro® t design of heat exchanger networks, which
combines the thermodynamic analysis of heat exchanger
network topologies with mathematical programming tech-
niques. The concept of the network pinch as a limit to heat
recovery in a HEN topology is also introduced, and demon-
strated to offer vital insight for identi® cation and selection
of bene® cial topology modi® cations in retro® t design.
The new method divides the design task into two steps: in
the ® rst step which is the diagnosis stage, changes are made
to the topology of the original HEN to increase the scope for
heat recovery and reduce the exchanger area requirement of
the retro® t HEN. During the optimization stage, which
forms the second step, the resulting HEN topology is then
optimized to produce the ® nal retro® t design. A sequential
search strategy de® ned and implemented using mathema-
tical programming techniques, to provide a systematic
procedure for identifying and selecting topology modi® ca-
tions. The use of a sequential search strategy as opposed to a
simultaneous search, ensures that user interaction is retained
in the procedure.
A unique feature of the new method is that the selection
of topology changes is not based on an explicit cost
minimization objective. For this reason, no evaluation or
estimation of the HEN area requirement is required during
the ® rst step, and this signi® cantly simpli® es the mathema-
tical models used in the new method. In addition, estimates
of the cost of each potential topology change are not
required, and this removes the need to determine such costs
ahead of design. Although this means that minimum cost
retro® t designs cannot in theory be guaranteed, the method
ensures that the ® nal retro® t cost remains close to minimum.
In addition, the method allows the generation of retro® t
Table 1. Summary of design implications.
Ahmad et al. Shokoya and
(1989)17 Kotjabasakis (1991)5 New Method
(Figure 29) (Figure 30) (Figure 26b)
New 3 2 1
Resequenced 1 2 1 Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Dr. X. X.
Repiped 1 0 0 Zhu, Department of Process Integration, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester
Stream Splits 1 (1 ´ 3) 1 (1 ´ 2) 1 (1 ´ 2)
Existing (+ area) 2 4 5
Additional Area 1990 1257 1265
designs which feature consistently simple and practical
con® gurations.
The main advantage of the new approach is that it offers a
systematic and automatic method for the retro® t design of
heat exchanger networks, combined with a facility of mean-
ingful and practical user interaction. This combination of
the bene® ts of both pinch and mathematical programming
techniques makes the method both powerful and effective in
producing practical retro® t designs. The approach has been
demonstrated, by means of literature and industrial case
studies, to provide an effective means of designing practical
and cost-effective retro® t HENs.
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ADDRESS
M60 1QD, UK.
The manuscript was received 23 November 1995 and accepted for
publication after revision 30 May 1996.
Trans IChemE, Vol 75, Part A, March 1997