Cucek L., Kravanja Z., 2015, A Procedure for the Retrofitting of Large-Scale Heat Exchanger Networks for Fixed and Flexible Designs, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 45, 31-36.
This contribution presents a novel three-step procedure incorporating software tools TransGen and HENSYN for the retrofitting of heat exchanger networks (HENs). This procedure is used for improving Heat Integration (HI) within individual plants and Total Sites (TSs) under fixed or steady-state conditions and under varying operational conditions. The software tool TransGen is used during the first targeting step and the second identification step for the most promising modifications, and HENSYN is used for the final synthesis of the retrofitted HEN. The targeting step is based on a combined Mathematical Programming/Pinch Analysis (MP/PA) approach, whilst the identification and the synthesis steps on the MP approach. The main objective of both tools TransGen and HENSYN is maximisation of the economic performance (annual incremental profit) of plants and/or TSs by minimisation of energy consumption and cost, and maximisation of economically-viable production of energy, such as production of hot water for district heating. Both tools consider the trade-offs between operating and investment cost but HENSYN considers it in more details. An illustrative example shows the capabilities of the developed software tools and the three-step procedure.
