Process integration (PI)

LECTURE # 1

Shimelis Kebede(PhD)
Assistant professor of Chemical(Process and Environmental) Engineering
School of Chemical and Bio Engineering/AAiT/AAU
 Example

A reactor transforms FEED into PRODUCT and BYPRODUCT.

Example

To isolate the PRODUCT and recycle

unreacted FEED a separation system is
needed
 What is process integration?

The term “process integration” means a number of

things to different people.
 It may be applied to a simple heat exchanger that recovers heat
from a process product stream, All improvements made to
 to waste-heat recovery from a gas turbine, process systems, their
 to the optimal scheduling of reactor usage, constituent unit
 to the integration of a number of production units in an oil operations,
refinery, or and their interactions to
 to the complete integration of an industrial complex. maximize the effective use
of energy, water, and
The term “Process Integration” (PI) refers to the analysis and optimization raw materials.
of large and complex industrial processes. PI may therefore be defined as:
Process integration (PI)
 PI’s

In general, PI’s added value, compared to that of

traditional approaches, is particularly significant for
large and complex industrial facilities. This is because
the more complex the process becomes, the harder it is
to identify the best saving opportunities without
using systematic approaches such as PI.

Among PI methodologies, pinch analysis is certainly the most widely used.

V
 Pinch Technology

Was proposed firstly for optimization of heat exchangers

Heat exchange equipments encounter in many industries for at least
two reasons;
 a) it is often necessary as part of the process to change the thermal condition and
 b) it is the ambition to minimize the energy consumption of the given process.
maximize the energy recovery within the process or to minimize the
use of external energy sources.
 Examples

a) Process with only external energy sources and

b) Process with internal and external energy sources.
 Benefits

Improving the integration of processes,

Often developing simpler

More elegant heat recovery networks

No advanced unit operation technology required

There are two engineering design problems in chemical processes. The first is the
problem of unit operation design and the second is the problem of designing total
systems.
Outline flowsheets for the front end of a specialty chemicals process

The alternative flowsheet

uses only four heat transfer
“units” and the utility
heating load is reduced by
about 40% with cooling no
longer required.
A simple process a) with external energy sources only and b) with internal and
external energy sources.
 Pinch Point Analysis (PPA)

An important part of pinch analysis is the establishment of

minimum energy consumption targets for a given process or
plant.

The application of pinch analysis (in industrial sectors such as oil refining,
chemicals, iron and steel, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, and food & drink) can
typically identify:

 Savings in energy consumption: 10 % to 60 %

 Energy pinch

Energy is fundamental in industrial economies and yet is often

overlooked in the drive for profitability.

Recent energy-market developments, including deregulation,

increasing oil and gas prices, as well as the effect of
combustion gas on climate change (CO2 is a greenhouse gas),
have created a new emphasis on energy management.
 Pinch analysis (PA)

 Pinch analysis is a rigorous, structured approach for identifying

inefficiencies in industrial process energy use.
 It is a well-proven technique, and has an established track record of
generating economically attractive heat-recovery projects that minimize both
energy consumption and capital investment when applied to individual
processes or site-wide.
 The approach’s primary focus is the energy used in individual
processes. The minimum theoretical utility requirement in the process
(target) is calculated for overall energy use, as well as for specific utilities
(LP, MP, HP steam, cooling water, etc.)
 Basic concepts of heat exchange

Any flow which requires to be heated or cooled, but does not

change in composition, is defined as a stream.
The feed, which starts cold and needs to be heated up, is known as
a cold stream.
Conversely, the hot product which must be cooled down is called
a hot stream. Conversely, the reaction process is not a stream,

because it involves a change in chemical composition;

and the make-up flow is not a stream

because it is not heated or cooled.

 Simple process flowsheet

a) Cold stream b) Hot stream

Simple process flowsheet with heat exchange
Systematic approach required to be taken for process design using
Pinch Technology

Different steps required for a process design utilizing Pinch Technology

 Key steps of pinch technology

There are four key steps of pinch analysis in the design of heat recovery
systems for both new and existing processes:

1) Data Extraction, which involves collecting data for the process

and the utility system.
2) Targeting, which establishes targets for design in terms of energy,
number of units, area, etc. for best performance
3) Design, where an initial Heat Exchanger Network is established.
4) Optimization, where the initial design is simplified and improved
economically.
The temperature–enthalpy diagram
1
 The temperature–enthalpy diagram

The heat content H of a stream (kW) is frequently called its enthalpy;

this should not be confused with the thermodynamic term, specific
enthalpy (kJ/kg).
T/H diagram with ∆Tmin= 20°C
Data for four-stream example
 Composite curves for four-stream problem

The overlap between the

composite curves represents
the maximum amount of heat
recovery possible within the
process. The “overshoot” at
the bottom of the hot
composite represents the
minimum amount of external
Data for four-stream cooling required and the
“overshoot” at the top of the
cold composite represents the
minimum amount of external
heating
The “kinked” nature of the composites means that ∆Tmin can occur
anywhere in the interchange region and not just at one end. For a
given value of ∆Tmin, the utility quantities predicted are the
minima required to solve the heat recovery problem.
Note that although there are many streams in the problem, in general
∆Tmin occurs at only one point of closest approach, which is
called the pinch. This means that it is possible to design a network
which uses the minimum utility equirements, where only the heat
exchangers at the pinch need to operate at ∆T values down to ∆Tmin.
Importance of Tmin
 Grand composite curves

In principle, the “composite curves” used for obtaining energy targets at given
values of ∆Tmin.
Hot streams and cold streams are at least ∆Tmin apart. This is done by using shifted
temperatures, which are set at 1⁄2∆Tmin below hot stream temperatures and 1⁄2∆Tmin
above cold stream temperatures.
enthalpy balances can easily be calculated for each according to:

It would therefore be possible to produce a feasible network design based on the
assumption that all “surplus” intervals rejected heat to cold utility, and all “deficit”
intervals took heat from hot utility.
in practical applications and Tmin ≠ 0 is always valid. In order to`decrease the size
of heat exchanger to an acceptable level with reasonable price it is assumed that
there always exists a temperature difference, preferably Tmin = 10C. This 10C
can be treated in three different ways. It can be added to the cold streams, which
means that the cold streams are warmed with 10C. Or, it can be divided between
cold and streams which mean that the cold stream will be warmer by 5C and the
hot streams will be cooler by 5C. Finally, it can be decreased from hot streams
which in turn mean that the hot stream will be cooled by 10C. Suppose that we
choose the last option, although the hot streams cannot be fully warmed and
they will be cooler by 10C.
Streams and temperature intervals
 Temperature intervals and heat loads for four-stream problem

any heat available in interval i is hot enough to supply any duty in interval i+1.
Instead of sending the 60kW of surplus heat from interval 1 into cold utility, it
can be sent down into interval 2. It is therefore possible to set up a heat “cascade”
as shown in Figure (a)
Assuming that no heat is supplied to the hottest interval 1 from hot utility, then
the surplus of 60kW from interval 1 is cascaded into interval 2. There it joins the
2.5kW surplus from interval 2, making 62.5kW to cascade into interval 3.
Interval 3 has a 82.5kW deficit, hence after accepting the 62.5kW it can be
regarded as passing on a 20kW deficit to interval 4. Interval 4 has a 75kW
surplus and so passes on a 55kW surplus to interval 5. Finally, the 15kW deficit in
interval 5 means that 40kW is the final cascaded energy to cold utility. This in
fact is the net enthalpy balance on the whole problem (i.e. cold utility will always
exceed hot utility by 40kW, whatever their individual values).
Looking back at the heat flows between intervals in Figure (a), clearly the
negative flow of 20kW between intervals 3 and 4 is thermodynamically
infeasible. To make it just feasible (i.e. equal to zero), 20kW of heat must
be added from hot utility as shown in Figure (b), and cascaded right
through the system. By enthalpy balance this means that all flows are
increased by 20kW. The net result of this operation is that the minimum
utilities requirements have been predicted (i.e. 20kW hot and 60kW
cold). Furthermore, the position of the pinch has been located. This is at
the interval boundary with a shifted temperature of 85°C (i.e. hot streams
at 90°C and cold at 80°C) where the heat flow is zero.
 Exercise

Process streams in an industrial plant.

 Significance of the Pinch

• Do not transfer heat across pinch

• Do not use cold utilities above the pinch

• Do not use hot utilities below the pinch

Exercise
 Question

Extract Hot and cold streams

Draw combined hot and cold composite curve (Tmin=10 oC)

Draw Grand Composite Curve

Calculate the minimum Hot and Cold utilities
Design Heat Exchanger Network
 Minimum Energy Requirement (MER) design

To perform MER design for the problem, the grid diagram is divided into

two parts i.e. above the pinch and below the pinch. Then following the
pinch design criteria placement of heat exchangers is carried out as:
For the above pinch design of the stream network, two criteria must

be fulfilled
1) No. of stream criterion: NH ≤ NC

2) CP criterion : CPH ≤ CPC

 Minimum Energy Requirement (MER) design

Below pinch design

The design rules are

1) No. of stream criterion: NH ≥ NC

2) CP criterion: CPH > CPC

Example