Lecture 7: Heat exchanger network design

Do Xuan Truong

truong.doxuan@hust.edu.vn
Introduction

● More complex MER designs involving stream splitting (Section

4.3).
● Network relaxation – eliminating small exchangers with a minor
energy penalty (Section 4.4).
● Situations with constraints, multiple pinches, utility pinches and
pinch regions (Sections 4.5 and 4.6).
● Revamp and retrofit of existing heat exchanger networks (Section
4.7).
● Operability aspects and multiple base cases (Section 4.8).
● We also briefly look at the main available types of heat
exchangers (Section 4.2) and
● illustrate all the key themes by application to our case study on
the organics distillation unit (Section 4.9).

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Heat exchange equipment
Shell-and-tube exchangers
Temperature crosses will be a problem
in “long” matches, especially for U-
tube
exchangers and other types with
multiple tube passes. For these
matches, especially near the pinch, it
may be best to use multiple shells or
countercurrent exchangers.
Conversely, if the shell side fluid is
boiling or condensing at constant
temperature, the U-tube unit is at no
disadvantage.

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Heat exchange equipment
Shell-and-tube exchangers

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Heat exchange equipment
Plate exchangers

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Heat exchange equipment
Plate exchangers

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Stream splitting and cyclic matching
Stream splitting

For design at the pinch, we noted that all matches between process streams
must fulfil the CP criteria, repeated below:

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Stream splitting and cyclic matching
Stream splitting

However, above the pinch, we have 2 hot streams and 1 cold stream. So, regardless of stream CPs, one
of the hot streams cannot be cooled to pinch temperature by interchange! The only way out of this
situation is to split a cold stream into two parallel branches, as in Figure 4.6.

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Stream splitting and cyclic matching
Stream splitting

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Stream splitting and cyclic matching
Stream splitting

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Stream splitting and cyclic matching
Stream splitting

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017

Stream splitting and cyclic matching
Stream splitting

Heat integration course _ Hanoi University of science and technology 2017