Retrofit of the Heat Recovery System of a Petroleum Refinery Using Pinch Analysis

Abstract

Energy efficiency has become an important feature in the design of process plants with the rising cost of energy and the more stringent environmental regulations being implemented worldwide. In South Africa, as elsewhere, most process plants built during the era of cheap energy place little emphasis on the need for energy recovery due to the abundance of cheap utilities sources such as coal. In most of these plants, there exist significant potential for substantial process heat recovery by conceptual design of the heat recovery system. By maximizing heat recovery from the processes, there will be a reduction in the process utilities requirement and the associated environmental effects. Pinch analysis has been demonstrated to be a simple but very effective tool for heat integration and optimization of chemical plants. This study uses the pinch principle to retrofit the heat exchanger networks (HEN) of the crude distillation unit of an integrated petroleum refinery to evolve a HEN that features optimum energy recovery. The network was further relaxed by trading off energy cost with capital cost to obtain an optimal HEN topology not too different from the existing network. The simulation works were implemented in AspenPlus v8.0 environment. Analysis revealed that 34 per cent saving on energy usage per annum is realizable. This significant saving in energy also results in diminished gaseous pollutants associated with energy usage.

Share and Cite:

Joe, J. and Rabiu, A. (2013) Retrofit of the Heat Recovery System of a Petroleum Refinery Using Pinch Analysis. Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 1, 47-52. doi: 10.4236/jpee.2013.15007.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] D. S. Selvakkumaran and B. Limmeechokchai, “Energy Security and Co-Benefits of Energy Efficiency Improvement in Three Asian Countries,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 20, 2013, pp. 491-503.
[2] D. von Hippel, T. Suzuki, J. H. Williams, et al., “Energy Security and Sustainability in Northeast Asia,” Energy Policy, Vol. 39, No. 11, 2011, pp. 6719-6730. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.07.001
[3] X. Liu, D. Chen, W. Zhang et al., “An Assessment of the Energy Saving Potential in China’s Petroleum Refining Industry from a Technical Perspective,” Energy, Vol. 59, 2013, pp. 38-49.
[4] M. M. El-Halwagi,“Chapter 22 Macroscopic Approaches of Process Integration,”Sustainable Design through Process Integration, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 2012, pp. 375-391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-85617-744-3.00022-9
[5] Y. Kansha, A. Kishimoto and A. Tsutsumi, “Application of the Self-Heat Recuperation Technology to Crude Oil Distillation,” Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 43, 2012, pp. 153-157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.10.022
[6] H. Zhang and G. P. Rangaiah,“One Step Approach for Heat Exchanger Network Retrofitting Using Integrated Differential Evolution,”Computers & Chemical Engineering, Vol. 50, 2013, pp. 92-104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2012.10.018
[7] M. Escobar and J. O. Trierweiler, “Optimal Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis: A Case Study Comparison,” Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 51, No. 1-2, 2013, pp. 801-826. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.10.022
[8] M. Gorji-Bandpy, H. Yahyazadeh-Jelodar and M. Khalili, “Optimization of Heat Exchanger Network,” Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 31, No. 5, 2011, pp. 779-784. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2010.10.026
[9] I. C. Kemp, “Pinch Analysis and Process Integration A User Guide on Process Integration for the Efficient Use of Energy,” Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007.
[10] M. Gadalla, D. Kamel, F. Ashour and H. M. El Din, “A New Optimisation Based Retrofit Approach for Revamping an Egyptian Crude Oil Distillation Unit,” Energy Procedia, Vol. 36, 2013, 2013, pp. 454-464.
[11] M. Errico, G. Tola and M. Mascia, “Energy Saving in a Crude Distillation Unit by a Preflash Implementation,” Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 8-9, 2009, pp. 1642-1647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2008.07.011
[12] S. Sieniutycz and J. Jezowski, “12-Heat Integration within Process Integration,” Energy Optimization in Process Systems and Fuel Cells, 2nd Edition, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2013, pp. 465-474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-098221-2.00012-6
[13] P. Rasković and S. Stoiljković, “Pinch Design Method in the Case of a Limited Number of Process Streams,” Energy, Vol. 34, No. 5, 2009, pp. 593-612. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2008.04.004
[14] S. Sieniutycz and J. Jezowski, “13-Maximum Heat Recovery and Its Consequences for Process System Design,” Energy Optimization in Process Systems and Fuel Cells, 2nd Edition, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2013, pp. 475-497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-098221-2.00013-8
[15] T. N. Tjoe and B. Linnhoff, “Using Pinch Technology for Process Retrofit,” Chemical Engineering, 1986, pp. 47-60.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.