Heat Transfer Investigation and Modeling of Heat Integrated Distillation Column

The high degree of reversibility of heat integrated distillation column(HIDiC) has been thermodynamically interpreted by the entropy method. In this paper, a heat transfer model and a more universal method were proposed, through which the overall heat transfer coefficient at different height of column under different operating conditions could be obtained before the experiment. Then the separation of a binary ethanol-water system was carried out experimentally as a case study to verify the heat transfer model and the aforementioned calculation method. The close results between the calculation, the simulation, and the experiments suggested that the proposed model and the calculation method in this paper were accurate and applicable. Meanwhile, it was demonstrated that the HIDiC shows obvious effect of reducing entropy increase and improving thermodynamic efficiency as compared to conventional distillation column.

Recent Progresses on Optimal Design of Heat Integrated Water Allocation Network

Energy integration and mass integration are important approaches to achieve energy saving and emission reduction in the process industry.Generally,the methods can be classified into two groups,viz.:conceptual design methods and mathematical programming methods.The former includes mainly graphical methods based on pinch technology that is operated easily.A feasible solution can be quickly obtained.Conceptual design methods are sequential in nature including two steps,namely:targeting and designing.The latter is based on superstructure optimization,and corresponding algorithm is adopted to solve the model.The trade-offs and connections among the entire network can be established and explored.Multiple factors can be considered and optimized simultaneously by mathematical programming methods.This paper describes the synthesis of heat integrated water allocation networks(HIWAN)based on both conceptual design methods and mathematical programming methods systematically.In addition,the characteristics and shortcomings of the existing research methods are summarized,and the future research direction is prospected.

Synthesis of Heat Integrated Complex Distillation Systems via Stochastic Optimization Approaches

This paper addresses the application of stochastic optimization approaches to the synthesis of heatintegrated complex distillation system, which is characterized by large-scale combinatorial feature. Conventionaland complex columns, thermally coupled (linked) side strippers and side rectifiers as well as heat integration betweenthe different columns are simultaneously considered. The problem is formulated as an MINLP (mixed-integernonlinear programming) problem. A simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to deal with the MINLP problemand a shortcut method is applied to evaluate all required design parameters as well as the total cost function. Twoillustrating examples are presented.

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 synthesis of heat-integrated distillation configurations using the two-column superstructure

In the realm of the synthesis of heat-integrated distillation configurations,the conventional approach for exploring more heat integration possibilities typically entails the splitting of a single column into a twocolumn configuration.However,this approach frequently necessitates tedious enumeration procedures,resulting in a considerable computational burden.To surmount this formidable challenge,the present study introduces an innovative remedy:The proposition of a superstructure that encompasses both single-column and multiple two-column configurations.Additionally,a simultaneous optimization algorithm is applied to optimize both the process parameters and heat integration structures of the twocolumn configurations.The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through a case study focusing on industrial organosilicon separation.The results underscore that the superstructure methodology not only substantially mitigates computational time compared to exhaustive enumeration but also furnishes solutions that exhibit comparable performance.

Simulation and Analysis of Cascading Faults in Integrated Heat and Electricity Systems Considering Degradation Characteristics

Cascading faults have been identified as the primary cause of multiple power outages in recent years.With the emergence of integrated energy systems(IES),the conventional approach to analyzing power grid cascading faults is no longer appropriate.A cascading fault analysis method considering multi-energy coupling characteristics is of vital importance.In this study,an innovative analysis method for cascading faults in integrated heat and electricity systems(IHES)is proposed.It considers the degradation characteristics of transmission and energy supply com-ponents in the system to address the impact of component aging on cascading faults.Firstly,degradation models for the current carrying capacity of transmission lines,the water carrying capacity and insulation performance of thermal pipelines,as well as the performance of energy supply equipment during aging,are developed.Secondly,a simulation process for cascading faults in the IHES is proposed.It utilizes an overload-dominated development model to predict the propagation path of cascading faults while also considering network islanding,electric-heating rescheduling,and load shedding.The propagation of cascading faults is reflected in the form of fault chains.Finally,the results of cascading faults under different aging levels are analyzed through numerical examples,thereby verifying the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed model and method.

Optimal Operation of Integrated Heat and Electricity Systems:A Tightening McCormick Approach

Combined heat and electricity operation with variable mass flow rates promotes flexibility,economy,and sustainability through synergies between electric power systems(EPSs)and district heating systems(DHSs).Such combined operation presents a highly nonlinear and nonconvex optimization problem,mainly due to the bilinear terms in the heat flow model—that is,the product of the mass flow rate and the nodal temperature.Existing methods,such as nonlinear optimization,generalized Benders decomposition,and convex relaxation,still present challenges in achieving a satisfactory performance in terms of solution quality and computational efficiency.To resolve this problem,we herein first reformulate the district heating network model through an equivalent transformation and variable substitution.The reformulated model has only one set of nonconvex constraints with reduced bilinear terms,and the remaining constraints are linear.Such a reformulation not only ensures optimality,but also accelerates the solving process.To relax the remaining bilinear constraints,we then apply McCormick envelopes and obtain an objective lower bound of the reformulated model.To improve the quality of the McCormick relaxation,we employ a piecewise McCormick technique that partitions the domain of one of the variables of the bilinear terms into several disjoint regions in order to derive strengthened lower and upper bounds of the partitioned variables.We propose a heuristic tightening method to further constrict the strengthened bounds derived from the piecewise McCormick technique and recover a nearby feasible solution.Case studies show that,compared with the interior point method and the method implemented in a global bilinear solver,the proposed tightening McCormick method quickly solves the heat–electricity operation problem with an acceptable feasibility check and optimality.

Design and control of methyl acetate-methanol separation via heat-integrated pressure-swing distillation

Design and control of pressure-swing distillation(PSD) with different heat integration modes for the separation of methyl acetate/methanol azeotrope are explored using Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics. First, an optimum steady-state separation configuration conditions are obtained via taking the total annual cost(TAC) or total reboiler heat duty as the objective functions. The results show that about 27.68% and 25.40% saving in TAC can be achieved by the PSD with full and partial heat integration compared to PSD without heat integration. Second,temperature control tray locations are obtained according to the sensitivity criterion and singular value decomposition(SVD) analysis and the single-end control structure is effective based on the feed composition sensitivity analysis. Finally, the comparison of dynamic controllability is made among various control structures for PSD with partial and full heat integration. It is shown that both control structures of composition/temperature cascade and pressure-compensated temperature have a good dynamic response performance for PSD with heat integration facing feed flowrate and composition disturbances. However, PSD with full heat integration performs the poor controllability despite of a little bit of economy.

Simulation and design of a heat-integrated double-effect reactive distillation process for propylene glycol methyl ether production

A double-effect reactive distillation(DERD)process was proposed for the production of propylene glycol methyl ether from propylene oxide and methanol to overcome the shortcoming of low selectivity and high-energy consumption in the tubular plug-flow reactor.A single-column reactive distillation(RD)process was conducted under optimized operating conditions based on sensitivity analysis as a reference.The results demonstrated that the proposed DERD process is able to achieve more than 95%selectivity of the desired product.After that,a design approach of the DERD process with an objective of the minimum operating cost was proposed to achieve further energy savings in the RD process.The proposed DERD configuration can provide a large energy-savings by totally utilization of the overhead vapor steam in the high-pressure RD column.A comparison of the single-column RD process revealed that the proposed DERD process can reduce the operating cost and the total annual cost of 25.3%and 30.7%,respectively,even though the total capital cost of DERD process is larger than that of the RD process.

Development and Application of Heat-integrated Aromatics Fractionation Process

The PRO/Ⅱ process simulation software was applied to carry out simulated calculation of the aromatics fractionation unit and the heat integrated rectification process was proposed for the aromatics fractionation section of the 1.0 Mt/a toluene disproportionation unit at the Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company. The optimized operating parameters were obtained through the energy utilization analysis,process simulation,heat exchanger calculations and comparisons of utility consumption. The operation of commercialized unit has revealed that the design parameters of each rectification column were consistent with the operation results,and the utility consumption was about 47% lower than the traditional heat integrated process.

Observability Analysis of Integrated Electricity and Heating Systems with Thermal Quasi-dynamics in Pipelines

Observability analysis(OA)is vital to obtaining the available input measurements of state estimation(SE)in an integrated electricity and heating system(IEHS).Considering the thermal quasi-dynamics in pipelines,the measurement equations in heating systems are dependent on the estimated results,leading to an interdependency between OA and SE.Conventional OA methods require measurement equations be known exactly before SE is performed,and they are not applicable to IEHSs.To bridge this gap,a scenario-based OA scheme for IEHSs is devised that yields reliable analysis results for a predefined set of time-delay scenarios to cope with this interdependency.As its core procedure,the observable state identification and observability restoration are formulated in terms of integer linear programming.Numerical tests are conducted to demonstrate the validity and superiority of the proposed formulation.

Optimization and Control of Extractive Distillation with Heat Integration for Separating Benzene/Cyclohexane Mixtures

In this work, the extractive distillation with heat integration process is extended to separate the pressure-insensitive benzene-cyclohexane azeotrope by using furfural as the entrainer. The optimal design of extractive distillation process is established to achieve minimum energy requirement using the multi-objective genetic algorithm, and the results show that energy saving for this heat integration process is 15.7%. Finally, the control design is performed to investigate the system's dynamic performance, and three control structures are studied. The pressure-compensated temperature control scheme is proposed based on the first two control structures, and the dynamic responses reveal that the feed disturbances in both flow rate and benzene composition can be mitigated well.

Case Studies of Heat Integration of Evaporation Systems

In this paper, through two case studies, evaporation systems are considered in the context of overall process, and then are optimized to obtain energy-saving effect. The possible evaporation schemes are given when integrated with the background process and how to optimize the evaporator is shown. From the case studies, it can be seen that sometimes incomplete integration and heat pump evaporation are better than complete integration so should be considered as candidate retrofit schemes.

Heat Integration for Different Separation Processes

The distribution of heat duties among individual separation subsystems and other aspects of heat integration in such systems are reviewed. Heat integration for different separation processes is investigated, using the pinch point method. Such a study will provide theoretical guide lines for the proper choice of a desirable separation process.

A game theory based method for inter-plant heat integration considering cost allocation

Inter-plant heat integration is an effective way for energy recovery in process industry. Although inter-plant heat integration can significantly reduce energy consumption, it is not widely applied in the multiple stakeholders’ situation due to profit or cost distribution problems. Therefore, this work considers both the technique aspects of heat integration and its business aspects between stakeholders simultaneously. The new proposed methodology consists of three steps. Firstly the optimal matching of heat integration between plants is obtained through mathematical programming. Then the cost distribution is decided through game theory. Finally the cost distribution obtained previous is corrected by an ideal expert model. A case study is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the method in the end of the work.

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Sugarcane Biomass and Heat Integration as Enhancers of Ethanol Production

The aim of this study is to assess the possibility of increasing ethanol production by introducing the bagasse hydrolysis process into conventional distilleries.Simulations were performed for mass and energy balances using Aspen Plus?software.It was assumed that sugarcane trash and lignin cake—hydrolysis process residues—are available as supplementary fuel.Several cases were evaluated,including:(a)conventional ethanol distillery,(b)conventional plant combined with a hydrolysis process without heat integration,with different solid contents in the hydrolysis reactor,and(c)conventional plant combined with the hydrolysis process applying heat integration by pinch analysis.The highest ethanol yield was achieved in the case of heat integration and concentration of cellulose hydrolysate by the membrane system with a solid content of 5%in the hydrolysis reactor.This represents an increase of 22%over conventional distilleries currently found in the industry.

Interpreting the dynamic effect of internal heat integration on reactive distillation columns

In this work,the impact of internal heat integration upon process dynamics and controllability by superposing reactive section onto stripping section,relocating feed locations,and redistributing catalyst within the reactive section is explored based on a hypothetical ideal reactive distillation system containing an exothermic reaction:A + BC + D.Steady state operation analysis and closed-loop controllability evaluation are carried out by comparing the process designs with and without the consideration of internal heat integration.For superposing reactive section onto stripping section,favorable effect is aroused due to its low sensitivities to the changes in operating condition.For ascending the lower feed stage,somewhat detrimental effect occurs because of the accompanied adverse internal heat integration and strong sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.For descending the upper feed stage,serious detrimental effect happens because of the introduced adverse internal heat integration and strong sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.For redistributing catalyst in the reactive section,fairly small negative influence is aroused by the sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.When reinforcing internal heat integration with a combinatorial use of these three strategies,the decent of the upper feed stage should be avoided in process development.Although the conclusions are derived based on the hypothetical ideal reactive distillation column studied,they are considered to be of general significance to the design and operation of other reactive distillation columns.

Techno-economic assessment of a chemical looping splitting system for H2 and CO Co-generation

The natural gas(NG)reforming is currently one of the low-cost methods for hydrogen production.However,the mixture of H2 and CO_(2) in the produced gas inevitably includes CO_(2) and necessitates the costly CO_(2) separation.In this work,a novel double chemical looping involving both combustion(CLC)and sorption-enhanced reforming(SE-CLR)was proposed towards the co-production of H2 and CO(CLC-SECLRHC)in two separated streams.CLC provides reactant CO_(2) and energy to feed SECLRHC,which generates hydrogen in a higher purity,as well as the calcium cycle to generate CO in a higher purity.Techno-economic assessment of the proposed system was conducted to evaluate its efficiency and economic competitiveness.Studies revealed that the optimal molar ratios of oxygen carrier(OC)/NG and steam/NG for reforming were recommended to be 1.7 and 1.0,respectively.The heat integration within CLC and SECLRHC units can be achieved by circulating hot OCs.The desired temperatures of fuel reactor(FR)and reforming reactor(RR)should be 850
C and 600
C,respectively.The heat coupling between CLC and SECLRHC units can be realized via a jacket-type reactor,and the NG split ratio for reforming and combustion was 0.53:0.47.Under the optimal conditions,the H2 purity,the H2 yield and the CH4 conversion efficiency were 98.76%,2.31 mol mol-1 and 97.96%,respectively.The carbon and hydrogen utilization efficiency respectively were 58.60% and 72.45%in terms of the total hydrogen in both steam and NG.The exergy efficiency of the overall process reached 70.28%.In terms of the conventional plant capacity(75 × 103 t y^(-1))and current raw materials price(2500$t^(-1)),the payback period can be 6.2 years and the IRR would be 11.5,demonstrating an economically feasible and risk resistant capability.

Experimental Study on the Thermal Performances of a Tube-Type Indirect Evaporative Cooler

The so-called indirect evaporative cooling technology is widely used in air conditioning applications.The thermal characterization of tube-type indirect evaporative coolers,however,still presents challenges which need to be addressed to make this technology more reliable and easy to implement.This experimental study deals with the performances of a tube-type indirect evaporative cooler based on an aluminum tube with a 10 mm diameter.In particular,the required tests were carried out considering a range of dry-bulb temperatures between 16℃ and 18℃ and a temperature difference between the wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperature of 2℃∼4℃.The integrated convective heat transfer coefficient inside the tube in the drenching condition has been found to lie in the range between 36.10 and 437.4(W/(m^(2)⋅K)).

A comprehensive review of recent advancements and developments in heat exchanger network synthesis techniques

The rapid development of computational technology and the increasing energy demand have improved heat exchanger network(HEN)synthesis.The HEN synthesis involves several optimizations of matches,distributions of heat loads,and stream splitting of heat units.Thus,obtaining good results at high efficiency has been the main standard for evaluating the techniques in the research area of HEN synthesis.This paper first summarizes and analyzes the main contributions of the existing HEN synthesis techniques.To compare related data quantitively,information on ten typical cases is presented in this paper.Furthermore,recently improved solutions for commonly encountered existing literature cases demonstrate the evolution and competition trends in the field of HEN synthesis.The comparison data presented in this paper not only provide a useful reference for future research but also present the optimization directions.Based on the findings of this study,it is noted that there is still a large room for improvement,and current approaches are incapable of dealing with all HEN cases.Moreover,it is still difficult to escape a local optimum and overcome structural constraints when seeking the global optimum.As a follow-up to the current work,the parallel computing mode and adaptively coordinating the ratio of global and local searching abilities are major development trends for future investigation.