Recent Methods for Retrofitting Heat Exchanger Networks with Heat Transfer Intensifications

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of recent optimization approaches for retrofitting heat exchanger networks (HENs) with heat transfer intensified techniques. The developed methods includes the heuristic rules for finding suitable enhanced exchangers in HENs, and the SA-based optimization method and MILP-based iterative mathematical programming method for optimizing HEN retrofit problems. An industrial case is investigated with the different optimization methods in several typical retrofit scenarios, providing a better understanding of implementing intensification techniques in suitable exchangers to achieve the best energy saving in a whole retrofitted HEN.