Pinch Point Calculations and Its Implications on Robust Distillation Design

Rising energy costs and growing environmental awareness motivate a critical revision of the design of distillation units. Systematic design techniques, such as the rectification body, column profile map, and temperature collocation methods, require exact knowledge of all pinch points in a particular system, because these stationary points delineate the possible composition trajectories realizable in separation columns. This paper demonstrates novel methods for rigorously determining all pinch points for the constant relative volatility, ideal and non-ideal systems. Constant relative volatility and ideal solution systems are transformed into one-dimensional polynomial and nonlinear functions, regardless of the number of the components. A deflation method is proposed to locate all zeros in ideal and non-ideal zeotropic problems. For more challenging non-ideal problems, a novel hybrid sequential niche algorithm is used to solve hard azeotropic problems successfully. Finally, the design implications of these pinch point locations are investigated to show how new separation configurations can be devised. Methodically the paper points out the use of rigorous pinch point computations in conjunction with continuous composition profiles for robust distillation design.

Simultaneously Designing and Targeting for Networks with Multiple Resources of Different Qualities

This paper presents a new design procedure for the networks with multiple resources, such as hydrogen and water, of different qualities. The minimum consumption targets of the resources and pinch-causing sources can be identified as well during design. The objective of this work is to reduce the consumption of the resources with higher quality due to their higher cost. A few examples are investigated to show the proposed method. For a net-work of single resource with single contaminant, there is often only one pinch point for the resource. On the other hand, for a network of multiple resources with single contaminant, there might be a few different pinch points. Each resource might have its own pinch point, if its amount is sufficient. The contaminant concentration of the pinch-causing source for a resource with lower concentration will be below that of the higher-concentration resource(s).

Simulation Study on a Heat Pump System Using R744/R290 as Refrigerant

Based on the Chinese National Standards involving heat pump water heater and space heating system, performances of the R744/R290 subcritical heat pump system have been discussed and compared with those of the R22 system, which is widely used in heat pump systems in China nowadays. It can be indicated that R744/R290 mixture can work efficiently as a refrigerant for heat pumps with a large heat-sink temperature rise. When mass fraction of R290 is increased, discharge pressure is reduced. Under the nominal working condition, there is an optimum mixture mass fraction of 20/80 for R744/R290 under conventional condensation pressure. Both the heating COPhs （coefficient of performance） and volumetric heating capacity are increased by about 12.62% and 34.24% respectively compared with those of R22 based system. But for the heat sink with a small temperature rise, R744/R290 system has poorer performances than R22 system. When heat transfer pinch point in evaporator and condensation processes is considered, the degree of superheat has a negative influence upon system performances under the given conditions.

Modeling and Analysis of Internal Heat Integrated Distillation Columns

A generalized steady-state model is being developed for an internal heat integrated distillation column (IHIDiC). A procedure incorporating the Newton-Raphson method is devised for solving the model equations. Separation of an ethanol-water binary mixture is simulated and analyzed with the model. Two pinch points are found within the process, making the separation extremely difficult and expensive. Two sharp fronts in the temperature and the composition profiles are being observed. With the introduction of heat integration, satisfactory separation may be obtained in a limited number of stages with lower reflux ratios. Increasing the pressure difference between the rectifying and the stripping sections, however, would bring about a reduced relative volatility between the two components involved, creating adverse separation performances. It is obvious that optimization of the IHIDiC is of prime importance.

Optimal Analysis of Pure Low-Temperature Waste Heat Recovery Generation System

In this paper, a detailed thermodynamic analysis of the pure low-temperature waste heat recovery generation system is presented. The parameters affecting the system performance are compared to obtain the most significant ones; furthermore, parameter values are optimized for the largest power generating capability of the system. It is found that the most important parameters are inlet flue gas temperature, steam pressure and the pinch point temperature difference. There is an optimal superheated steam pressure value for giving the maximum generation power per unit flue gas. With the increase of inlet flue gas temperature, the generating power increases and the optimized steam pressure rises as well. However, with increase in pinch point temperature difference, the generating power decreases and the optimized steam pressure decreases as well. The theoretical calculation provides a theoretical basis for the parameters optimization in the design of the pure low-temperature waste heat recovery eeneration swtem

Heat Recovery for Adsorption Refrigeration System via Pinch Technology

An adsorption refrigeration system can be driven by low grade heat and uses natural refrigerant with the advantage of reducing the greenhouse gases emission.However,one of the weaknesses is its low efficiency and more importantly its high cost.The recovery of internal waste heat becomes therefore very important in order to improve the coefficient of performance(COP).Analysis based on pinch technology can be helpful to optimal heat recovery operation.In this paper,temperature-heat diagrams and problem tables for adsorption refrigeration systems are proposed and analyzed using Pinch Technology.The results show that pinch point is located between beds and the main waste heat needs to be recovered between beds.Dynamic characteristic(time factor)of adsorption refrigeration system is the main resistance for heat recovery.The effect of pinch point temperature difference on the system COP is not distinct.Furthermore,when the driving temperature is 90°C,the COP of adsorption refrigeration via optimization of pinch analysis is 0.73 which is fairly comparable to Li Br-water absorption refrigeration system.Pinch Technology can be adopted in different types of adsorption refrigeration systems(two-bed,four-bed,mass recovery,et al.).

Investigation on the Pinch Point Position in Heat Exchangers

The pinch point is important for analyzing heat transfer in thermodynamic cycles. With the aim to reveal the importance of determining the accurate pinch point, the research on the pinch point position is carried out by theoretical method. The results show that the pinch point position depends on the parameters of the heat transfer fluids and the major fluid properties. In most cases, the pinch point locates at the bubble point for the evaporator and the dew point for the condenser. However, the pinch point shills to the supercooled liquid state in the near critical conditions for the evaporator. Similarly, it shifts to the superheated vapor state with the condensing temperature approaching the critical temperature for the condenser. It even can shift to the working fluid entrance of the evaporator or the supereritical heater when the heat source fluid temperature is very high compared with the absorb- ing heat temperature. A wrong position for the pinch point may generate serious mistake. In brief, the pinch point should be founded by the itcrativc method in all conditions rather than taking for granted.

Thermodynamic Evaluation of Transcritical CO_(2) Heat Pump Considering Temperature Matching under the Constraint of Heat Transfer Pinch Point

The non-linear temperature glide in the supercritical CO_(2) cooling process makes the heat transfer pinch point of heat exchanger show multiplicity,like size,location distribution and quantity,which makes the thermodynamic performance of the CO_(2) transcritical cycle more complex and eventually affects the evaluation of the optimal operating state of the system.Based on the second law of thermodynamics and the constraints of heat transfer pinch,a thermodynamic evaluation method of CO_(2) transcritical heat pump system was proposed according to the degree of temperature matching.The influence mechanism of multi-characteristic change of heat transfer pinch point on temperature matching degree and the effect of temperature matching degree on thermodynamic performance of CO_(2) transcritical heat pump system were discussed.The relationship between temperature matching degree,COP and exergy efficiency of the system was analyzed.It is considered that the change of temperature matching index value can clearly characterize the change trends of COP and exergy efficiency.That is,the smaller the temperature matching degree is,the closer the temperature distribution of heat transfer fluids on both sides of the heat exchanger is to Lorenz cycle,and the greater the COP and exergy efficiency are.Furthermore,by monitoring the outlet temperature of the CO_(2) cooler,which has an essential relationship with the temperature matching degree during the heat exchange process,the deviation between actual and optimal working condition can be judged online,which is beneficial to real-time evaluation of the working state of the system.

Optimization of Low-Temperature Exhaust Gas Waste Heat Fueled Organic Rankine Cycle

Low temperature exhaust gases carrying large amount of waste heat are released by steel-making process and many other industries, Organic Rankine Cycles （ORCs） are proven to be the most promising technology to re- cover the low-temperature waste heat, thereby to get more financial benefits for these industries. The exergy analysis of ORC units driven by low-temperature exhaust gas waste heat and charged with dry and isentropic fluid was per- formed, and an intuitive approach with simple impressions was developed to calculate the performances of the ORC unit. Parameter optimization was conducted with turbine inlet temperature simplified as the variable and exergy effi- ciency or power output as the objective function by means of Penalty Function and Golden Section Searching algo- rithm based on the formulation of the optimization problem. The power generated by the optimized ORC unit can be nearly as twice as that generated by a non-optimized ORC unit. In addition, cycle parametric analysis was performed to examine the effects of thermodynamic parameters on the cycle performances such as thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency. It is proven that performance of ORC unit is mainly affected by the thermodynamic property of working fluid, the waste heat temperature, the pinch point temperature of the evaporator, the specific heat capacity of the heat carrier and the turbine inlet temperature under a given environment temperature.