This paper presents a systematic synthesis method that considers multiple shells and logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD) FT correction factor for heat exchanger networks (HENs) involving multiple periods of operation. The approach adopted entails firstly generating a reduced multiperiod HEN superstructure using network solutions obtained when the STEP (Stream Temperature Versus Enthalpy Plot) and HEAT (Heat Allocation and Targeting) synthesis methods are applied to each subperiod. The second stage entails generating an initial multiperiod HEN solution from the reduced superstructure synthesis approach. The number of shells, as well as the FT correction factor, required by each exchanger in each period of the initial multiperiod HEN are then manually calculated and used to initialise the multiperiod HEN to obtain updated representative heat exchanger areas for all stream pairs in all periods of operations. The solution obtained, when the method of this paper is applied to a literature example, shows that the assumption of 1 – 1 (1 shell pass – 1 tube pass) design configuration for multiperiod HEN problems, underestimates the representative heat exchanger areas by 12.3%.
