Heat Integration retrofit analysis—an oil refinery case study by Retrofit Tracing Grid Diagram

Abstract

Heat Integration has been established over the last decades as a proven chemical engineering methodology. Two design implementations are often used in the industry: grassroots and retrofit. Although various methods have been developed for retrofit, it still needs more development to ensure simultaneously thermodynamic feasibility and economic viability. In this paper, a novel graphical approach has been developed to facilitate the understanding of the current situation and scope of improvement. The Retrofit Tracing Grid Diagram presents all streams and heat exchangers in temperature scale and the heat exchangers are clearly separated from each other, enabling clear visualisation of the current state. The tool incorporates the previously developed Cross-Pinch Analysis as well as path approach for retrofit. Additionally, the non-vertical heat transfer can be evaluated. The application of the developed tool has been validated on an oil refinery case study. The applicability of the tool is evident as it can reveal additional options for modification that none of the previous methods considered.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Heat Integration / retrofit / Pinch Analysis / thermodynamic approach / oil refinery

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from EC FP7 project ENER/FP7/296003/EFENIS “Efficient Energy Integrated Solutions for Manufacturing Industries” and from Hungarian State and the European Union project TAMOP-4.2.2.A-11/1/KONV-2012-0072-Design and optimization of modernization and efficient operation of energy supply and utilization systems using renewable energy sources and ICTs.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg