Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Local heat exchanger network optimization of industrial coal-to-olefin

process based on hot direct feed/discharge strategy
Shuoshi Liu a, b, Dan Li a, b, Siyu Yang a, b, *, Yu Qian a, b, *
a
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, PR China
b
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Products Technology, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Chemical process comprises multiple units that are linked together through process streams. Though it has the
Coal-to-olefins advantages of operation independence and flexibility, it will lead to considerable energy consumption and
Hot direct feed/discharge equipment investment. Existing studies have placed more stress on the heat integration and steam reduction for
Minimum steam consumption
single unit. However, it is rarely optimized for the linking stream. In this study, local heat exchanger network was
Techno-economic analysis
optimized based on the proposed hot direct feed/discharge strategy. On the whole, the heat integration consists
of the integrations in the hot direct feed/discharge region and the downstream process. This strategy was capable
of regulating the temperature distribution and improving the freedom of energy comprehensive optimization.
The heat integration for downstream process was re-optimized under the principle of minimum steam con­
sumption, where minimum steam flowrate was determined using the latent heat and the sensible heat of steam
simultaneously. As revealed from the results, the optimal design decreased hot utility and cold utility by 32.24
MW and 29.14 MW. The steam condensate contributed 6.0 MW heat, which was provided by the latent heat of
steam originally. Furthermore, as demonstrated from techno-economic analysis, an annual increment of 3.09 M$
benefit was achieved in a 0.6 Mt/y coal-to-olefins (CTO) process.

absorption based methanol to olefins recovery section. Isafiade et al. [5]

1. Introduction
Energy chemical industries produce various chemical and energy
products, which greatly improve people’s lives. With the increasingly
environmental protection requirement and production cost control,
existing energy-intensive enterprises should pay more attention to pro­
cess innovation, energy conservation and advanced management
mechanism to improve competitiveness and social benefits [1].
There are three routes that make a significant contribution to energy-
saving in chemical industry. It includes process innovation, heat inte­
gration for single unit, as well as simultaneous synthesis of utility system
and process unit. Process innovation was proposed for a better resource
utilization and higher energy efficiency. Lin et al. [2] proposed the co-
feed and poly-generation system based on coal and coke oven gas for
producing methanol and electricity with higher energy efficiency. Song
et al. [3] proposed the process integration of steam methane reforming
unit and pressure swing adsorption unit for higher energy efficiency.
Heat integration for single unit can reduce the utility consumption by
the cascade matching of cold and hot streams. Reyniers et al. [4] con­
ducted the pinch analysis and techno-economic analysis of an
proposed a stage-wise superstructure for heat exchanger network syn­
thesis based on intermediate placement of multiple utilities. The utilities
can be arranged in any location rather than just on the both ends. Liew
et al. [6] developed the algorithm for total site heat integration with
variable energy supply/demand. Furthermore, the simultaneous syn­
thesis of utility systems and process units can realize the comprehensive
optimization of the whole plant. Majozi et al. [7] and Luo et al. [8]
proposed the simultaneous synthesis of utility system and heat
exchanger network incorporating steam condensate utilization and
boiler feedwater at the high temperature. Tarighaleslami et al. [9]
improved the utility exchanger network (UEN) synthesis for a lower
steam consumption.
Currently, heat integration between plants has received much
attention because of the further energy saving potential, addressing the
limitation of above three routes. According to the heat transfer medium,
it can be divided into direct heat integration and indirect heat integra­
tion. Tian et al. [10] proposed two-plant direct heat integration with
safety redundancy based on a bilevel algorithm. Though direct heat
integration can significantly reduce the energy consumption, the safety
of equipment operation must be fully considered. Chang et al. [11]

* Corresponding authors at: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China.
E-mail addresses: cesyyang@scut.edu.cn (S. Yang), ceyuqian@scut.edu.cn (Y. Qian).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2022.118161
Received 5 July 2021; Received in revised form 16 January 2022; Accepted 29 January 2022
Available online 2 February 2022
1359-4311/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Liu et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161

Nomenclature QH required hot utility

SC steam condensate
Abbreviations T-H enthalpy-temperature
AGR acid gas removal unit UEN utility exchanger network
ASU air separation unit WGS water gas shift unit
CG coal gasification unit
CTO coal to olefins Notations in formulation
CW cooling water Q heat provided by steam
DMTO dimethyl ether/methanol-to-olefins Ql latent heat duty of steam
HEN heat exchanger network Qs sensible heat duty of steam
HP high pressure steam m steam flowrate;
LORU light olefin recovery unit λ latent heat value of steam;
LP low pressure steam Cp heat capacity flow rate;
MD methanol distillation unit Tin inlet temperature of steam condensate
MP medium pressure steam Tin, M inlet temperature of existed steam condensate M
MS methanol synthesis unit Tout outlet temperature of steam condensate
MTO methanol to olefins unit dt temperature difference
PSO particle swarm optimization Qk heat duty of heat exchanger K,
QC required cold utility f maximum heat transfer duty.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of hot direct feed/discharge strategy.

proposed simultaneous optimization of multi-plant heat integration
method using intermediate fluid circles. It can reduce the requirements
for synchronized operation and layout of different equipment. Pan et al.
[12] developed the multi-plant indirect heat integration based on the
alopex-based evolutionary algorithm. Ma et al. [13] proposed the multi-
period interplant heat integration using steam system. Liu et al. [14]
developed an interplant heat integration method involving multiple
intermediate fluid circles and agents.
The simultaneous optimization for adjacent units or plants is capable
of presenting a novel insight into heat integration between plants, while
addressing a series of problems such as operation synchronization at the
same time. Each unit in chemical process is designed by different tech­
nology providers, which has the advantages of operation independence
and operation flexibility. However, the coordination and the optimiza­
tion for linking process have been constantly lacked from upstream to
downstream. The outlet temperature of upstream unit is usually 40 ◦ C,
and the linking stream is repeatedly heated and cooled. This results in a
low energy efficiency and repeated equipment investment. Zhang et al.
[15] found that a higher linking temperature is expected to save energy.
New temperature distribution forces heat exchanger network (HEN) to
re-optimize the streams matching, thereby laying solid foundation for to
in-depth energy optimization and improvement [16]. Yang et al. [17]
developed the theoretical research on hot feed and discharge by using
pinch analysis. The possibility of heat integration between hot feed and
the background process can be seen clearly on the T-H diagram. This
strategy could achieve further energy saving in total site. The research

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S. Liu et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161

Fig. 2. Framework of hot direct feed/discharge strategy.

influencing factors consist of upstream and downstream temperatures,

Table 1
the storage medium and conditions of the linking storage tank, as well as
Utility price and heat exchanger cost.
the existing matching structure.
Utility Tin Tout $/(kW⋅y) [22] This study aimed to investigate the optimization of local heat
MP 184 182 110 exchanger network based on the proposed hot direct feed/discharge
LP 159 157 50 strategy in an industrial CTO process. The research framework was
AC 40 55 5
proposed based on the hot direct feed strategy. The HEN optimization
CW 30 36 10
Heat exchanger cost ($) = 8500 + 409⋅[Area(m2)0.85] [23,24]
comprises the hot direct feed region and the downstream process. Such a
strategy is capable of reducing the energy consumption and regulating
the temperature distribution of the downstream process. The vital pa­
method selected should comply with the physical property. For example, rameters were determined first, i.e., the temperature and the fraction of
the petrochemical storage tanks require heat preservation to prevent the hot direct feed stream and hot discharge stream. Subsequently, the
solidification, which is as opposed to the coal chemical industry. The

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the typical CTO plant.

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Fig. 4. Schematic diagram for industrial case.

linked by the process stream, where storage tank is usually operated at a

Table 2 lowest temperature. The reheating and cooling process causes a great
Stream information extraction for the study case. energy waste. Feed/discharge with a higher temperature may decrease
Unit Name Explanation Inlet Outlet Validation Heat the required cold utility (QC) for upstream process and the hot utility
/℃ /℃ Duty (QH) for downstream process. The schematic diagram of hot direct feed/
/MW
discharge strategy is shown in Fig. 1. The main adjustment variables are
MS S204 Hot 283 45 214.40 the temperature and fraction of hot direct feed/discharge stream.
production
Relevant strategies may be different according to the characteristic of
gas 1#
S212 Hot 275 45 193.77
the detailed industrial process. It is often to use partial hot feed, taking
production the storage temperature limitation and operational feasibility for
gas 2# consideration. HEN will be changed after adopting the hot direct feed/
S217 Recycle gas 45 250 126.29 discharge, which creates the possibility of energy saving.
to reactor 1#
The heat integration mainly includes two areas: the hot direct feed/
S106 Feed gas to 76 250 30.55
reactor 1# discharge region and the downstream process. The framework of hot
S210 Recycle gas 66 250 129.71 direct feed/discharge strategy is illustrated in Fig. 2. The research work
to reactor 2# is carried out in 4 steps. The first step is to determine the hot direct feed/
MD Reb Reboiler of 92.9 93 [27] 16.96 discharge strategy and boundary conditions. Then, HEN synthesis for
tower
Discharge Product to 93 40 10.45
hot direct feed/discharge region should be conducted. The next step is to
tower calculate the minimum steam consumption for downstream process. The
Feed Feed to tower 45 45 0.00 last step is to conduct HEN synthesis for downstream process.
MTO Qr Fixed heater 100 99 4.00 Pinch technology is adopted to describe energy cascade matching
(reactor)
information. Some hot streams that originally provided heat for cold
PW Purified 92 81 3.00
water streams are virtually shown in the T-H diagram due to the new tem­
SC Steam 181 158 1.09 perature distribution regulated by hot direct feed/discharge. The high-
condensate temperature heat and low-temperature heat can be incorporated into
(MP) the large-scale system for optimal utilization. The variation of temper­
SC Steam 157 80 3.85
condensate
ature distribution promotes the energy comprehensive optimization. On
(LP) the one hand, this strategy can reduce the heat duty of reheating and
Discharge Cold 40 100 11.85 cooling. At the same time, the capital cost for heat exchangers and
discharge linking tank is greatly decreased. On the other hand, the possibility of
LORU C1 Heat sink 1# 75.3 80 [28] 6.20
cross-equipment heat integration could be improved due to the new
C2 Heat sink 2# 77.6 80 [28] 1.97
C3 Heat sink 3# 92.6 94.3 [28] 1.85 distribution of heat sources and heat sinks. This can also solve multiple
hot direct feeds/discharges problem [18].
*industrial data is from a CTO plant in Ningxia province, China
The approach for HEN synthesis in hot feed/discharge region needs
to consider the streams in upstream process and downstream process.
HEN synthesis for downstream process was conducted under the prin­ Firstly, the foremost adjustment boundaries should be determined to set
ciple of minimum steam consumption. Moreover, the vital parameters the temperature and fraction for hot feed and hot discharge streams. The
were analyzed to reveal the effect of hot direct feed/discharge on the constraint range must refer to the existing matching and feasible storage
required exchanger area and heat duty. Lastly, the optimal design was condition of the industrial process. The major energy saving space in this
generated and presented to indicate the difference between the original region is the steam reduction for reheating the cold discharge stream
HEN and the optimal HEN. To assess the present study, its capital cost and other steam consumption. To design the HEN, a list of hot streams
and operating cost were investigated and compared with the industrial shall be determined from all hot streams that meet the temperature
case. difference. It is assumed that each hot stream exchange heat only once.
The HEN structure in this area cannot be greatly changed in order to
2. Methodology meet the operation requirements under different hot discharge
conditions.
The total site involves upstream process, downstream process and The stream temperature in the downstream process is raised after
linking stream. The upstream process and downstream process are

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S. Liu et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161

Fig. 5. T-H diagram for upstream combined with hot direct feed/discharge.

Fig. 6. T-H diagram for downstream combined with hot direct feed/discharge.

applying the hot direct feed/discharge strategy. Therefore, the HEN in The latent heat and sensible heat are calculated by Eqs. (1)–(4),
this region is required to be re-optimized because the matching of hot where Q is the heat duty of steam; Ql and Qs are the latent heat duty and
and cold streams is broken. Zhang et al. [19] found that heat integration the sensible heat duty of steam; m is steam flowrate; λ denotes the latent
combined with utility streams can further save energy. The steam uti­ heat value of steam; Cp refers to the heat capacity of steam condensate; T
lization includes both latent and sensible heat rather than latent heat is steam temperature, K; Tin and Tout are inlet and outlet temperature of
only. The sensible heat can be found in the steam condensate. In order to steam condensate.
describe the concepts of minimum steam consumption, a brief outline of
Q = Ql + Qs (1)
the method is given. This method applies only to the cold stream that
requires hot utility for heating in the downstream process. Hot utility
Ql = m⋅λ (2)
curve is constructed to target the minimum steam flowrate, as is shown
in Fig. 2 (c). It is seen that latent heat and sensible heat are represented λ = 2726 - 4.13 ⋅T (3)
by horizontal lines and slanting lines, respectively. The formulation is
shown as follows [20]: Qs = m⋅Cp ⋅(Tin − Tout ) (4)

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Fig. 7. Preliminary schematic diagram and HEN grid diagram in hot direct feed/discharge region.

By combining the above equations, the following relation is where t is the temperature of cold stream. Δt is the allowed minimum
obtained: temperature difference, 15 ℃. The minimum temperature is calculated
by the turning point in the cold curve. The corresponding points in the
Q
m = (5) hot curve will be found. The ordinate difference between these two
λ + Cp × (Tin − Tout )
points is the temperature difference. Then the minimum temperature
If there exists steam condensate, Eqs. (4) and Eqs. (5) can be written difference is found among these points.
as: After determining the minimum steam flow, the steam is split into
latent heat streams and sensible heat streams to HEN synthesis. It is
Qs = m⋅Cp ⋅(Tin − Tout ) + M⋅Cp ⋅(Tin,M − Tout ) (6)
supposed that there are two hot streams H1, H2 (i = 2) and three cold
streams C1, C2, C3 (j = 3). In this case, there are at most six heat transfer
Q − M⋅Cp ⋅(Tin,M − Tout )
m= (7) orders. Then utility exchanger network (UEN) is synthesized under the
λ + Cp ⋅(Tin − Tout )
HEN algorithm accelerated by particle swarm optimization (PSO). The
where M is the flowrate of the existing steam condensate, Tin, M is the PSO algorithm is a population-based stochastic optimization technol­
inlet temperature of existing steam condensate M. The minimum tem­ ogy, which can find the better solution with a high probability [21].
perature difference constraint is formulated by Eq. (8). The optimization objective is the maximum heat transfer duty.
∑
min (T − t)⩾Δt (8) f = max( Qk ) (9)
k∈K

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S. Liu et al.
Fig. 8. Influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the main heat duty.
Fig. 9. Influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the required exchanger area
of upstream.
where Qk is the heat duty of heat exchanger k, f denotes the maximum
heat transfer duty.
When the heat duty of the cold stream is greater than or equal to the
heat of the hot stream, the stream splitting method is shown as follows:
The hot stream is arranged in series, while the cold stream is in parallel.
The situation is just the opposite when the heat duty of the cold stream is
less than that of the hot stream.
Finally, techno-economic analysis was conducted to evaluate the
performance of this work. The techno-economic analysis consists of
capital cost, operating cost and total annual cost. The operating cost
includes the cost of hot and cold utilities. The capital cost includes the
cost of exchangers, coolers and heaters. And the total annual cost in­
cludes the operating cost and capital cost with annualization factor. The
utility price and heat exchanger cost defined in this paper is shown in
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Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161
Table 1. The Heat exchanger cost includes fixed cost and the area-related
cost, and annualization factor is 0.322. The minimum temperature dif­
ference is 15℃.
3. Case study
Publication information only shows the application of hot feed in
crude oil processing [16–19]. However, the petrochemical process is
quite different from the coal chemical process. It is necessary to study
the characteristic difference and combine this strategy with the coal
chemical industrial process. The typical CTO plant is selected to explore
the feasibility of the study framework. The study scale is 1.8 Mt/y crude
methanol corresponding to 0.6 Mt/y olefins products. The annual
operation time is 8000 h.
3.1. Case for industrial CTO plant
The CTO process is a technology that uses coal as feedstock to syn­
thesize MTO grade methanol, and then uses methanol to produce
ethylene, propylene and other olefins. The typical CTO plant consists of
two plants: methanol plant and olefins plant [25], as is shown in Fig. 3.
The methanol plant includes air separation unit (ASU), coal gasification
unit (CG), water gas shift unit (WGS), acid gas removal unit (AGR),
methanol synthesis unit (MS) and methanol distillation unit (MD). In
this plant, coal feedstock is gasified into syngas first. Then the hydrogen
to carbon ratio of syngas is adjusted by the WGS unit. The purified gas is
obtained in the AGR unit and enters the MS unit. Finally, MTO grade
methanol is separated in the MD unit. The olefins plant includes meth­
anol to olefins unit (MTO) and light olefin recovery unit (LORU). Two
plants are linked by crude methanol storage tank in the MD unit. In this
plant, MTO grade methanol enters the MTO reactor, producing a lot of
C1-C9 Hydrocarbons. Finally, ethylene, propylene is separated in the
LORU unit.
The schematic diagram for industrial case is shown in Fig. 4. We
study the case as three parts: upstream process, downstream process and
linking process. They are the MS unit, the MD unit, the MTO unit and the
LORU unit, respectively. In the MS unit, a lot of heat in stream S204 and
S212 are wasted by air cooler and cooling water. The outlet temperature
of the MS unit is 45℃. This cold stream is fed into the MD unit, where
the highest operation temperature is 93℃. All heat duty is provided by
S. Liu et al.
Fig. 10. Maximum structure of schematic diagram and HEN grid diagram for downstream process.
LP steam. The outlet stream of the MD unit is cooled to 40℃ and enters
storage tank. This crude methanol is heated to higher than 100℃ for
olefins synthesis. The repeated heating and cooling processes cause huge
energy losses. The cold discharge is heated by purified water (PW) and
steam condensate (SC) in sequence. The surplus heat of PW and SC is
removed by air cooler and cooling water. The rest stream C1, C2 and C3
are heated by LP steam. In general, the amount of steam could be
reduced by various strategies. The MS unit adopts the Davy technology,
while the MTO unit takes the DMTO technology [26].
3.2. Stream information extraction
The stream information extraction for study case is shown in Table 2.
It includes upstream process, downstream process and linking process
for industrial case. The downstream process only lists the streams
related to the hot discharge. The stream information is from industrial
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Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161
data, and is validated by reference data to ensure the reliability of the
calculation process. The calculation of heat duty is conducted by Aspen
software.
4. Results and discussion
For the minimum change and operation flexibility, the optimal HEN
will retain some existing heater and cooler in original HEN. More
measures will be taken to allow the heat exchanger network to operate
in multiple periods [29]. This strategy has no effect on the quality of
product. On the one hand, the HEN will not pollute the raw materials.
On the other hand, the non-condensable gas is easily separated from the
methanol tower. Water washing is equipped to reduce methanol
entrainment in the non-condensable gas.
S. Liu et al.
Fig. 11. HEN grid diagrams for downstream process under different hot discharge condition.
Fig. 12. Influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the downstream process.
4.1. Hot direct feed/discharge optimization
Pinch analysis is used here to show the temperature distribution of
the upstream process or the down process with and without hot direct
feed/discharge streams. The new energy-saving potential can be found
in grand composite curves. The feed stream and the bottom stream of the
methanol distillation in the MD unit are defined as the hot direct feed
stream (hot feed) and the hot direct discharge stream (hot discharge).
The original temperature of feed stream and discharge are 45℃ and
93℃. Therefore, the temperature range of the hot direct feed is set from
45℃ to 90℃, while the hot feed fraction can be 100 % since there is no
constraint of existing heaters. The storage tank is still kept to avoid the
impact on the stability and security of the downstream operation. The
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Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161
Fig. 13. Influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the operating cost.
temperature of the cold discharge stream is set to 40℃ as usual because
of the storage temperature constraint for crude methanol. And the
temperature of the hot discharge stream is 93℃, because the last stage of
discharge stream will be heated to higher than 100℃. The discharge
streams enter the next device after non-isothermal mixing. In short, the
variables are only the hot feed temperature and the hot discharge frac­
tion. The hot feed fraction and the hot discharge temperature remain
unchanged at 100 % and 93℃. Three scenarios are described in the
figure: industrial case (case 0) and two case with hot direct feed/
S. Liu et al.
Fig. 14. Influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the capital cost.
discharge (case 1 and case 2). The feed temperature in case 0 is 45℃,
while discharge temperature is 40℃. The feed temperature in case 1 is
60℃, while hot discharge fraction is 50 %. The feed temperature in case
2 is 90℃, while hot discharge fraction is 100 %.
Fig. 5 presents the T-H diagram for upstream combined with and
without hot feed/discharge streams. According to Fig. 5 (a), the mini­
mum hot utility can be zero in the MS unit. Therefore, the MP steam used
here can be removed by heat transfer enhancement. At the same time,
the cooling duty of air cooler will also be reduced. It can be seen from
Fig. 5 (b) that the hot discharge reduces the overall cold demand and
creates the hot sink at 93 ◦ C. The hot pocket area is located at the
methanol reboiler of the MD unit, and LP steam used here is not rec­
ommended to discard in order to maintain operational flexibility [30].
The maximum case has a minimum requirement of LP steam and cold
utility compared with other cases.
Fig. 6 presents the T-H diagram for downstream combined with and
without hot discharge streams. It can be seen from the figure that hot
discharge mainly decreases the total heat demand and heat source
grade. More than 5.0 MW heat sink can be heated by low temperature
heat source. The purified water (PW) can provide the heat rather than
being wasted by cooling water. The other residual heat generated by
HEN change can be used for heating other cold streams in downstream
process to save LP steam.
Fig. 7 illustrates the preliminary schematic diagram and HEN grid
diagram integrated with hot direct feed/discharge. The original MP
Fig. 15. Optimal schematic diagram integrating with hot direct feed/discharge strategy and minimum steam consumption.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161
steam used in the MS unit is removed after optimization, and the re­
sidual heat can be used to heat the hot feed. This hot feed can also
receive heat by crude methanol in the bottom of methanol distillation
tower and purified water in the MTO unit. The hot discharge with a
certain fraction enters the MTO unit directly at 93℃. The cold one is
cooled to 40 ℃ as usual. In order to keep the minimum change in HEN,
the internal heat Qr provides the heat for the first heater of cold feed as
usual [31]. Finally, two discharge streams are mixed and then enter the
subsequent equipment.
Fig. 8 presents the influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the main
heat duty. As can be seen in Fig. 8 (a), red line and blue line represent
reboiler duty and required hot feed duty. Both steam S212 and purified
water can meet the temperature difference constraint for hot feed. The
reboiler duty decreases with the increase of the hot discharge fraction,
saving a lot of LP steam. Fig. 8 (b) illustrates the influence of hot
discharge fraction on the heat duty of downstream. The duty of the hot
discharge increases as the fraction increases, while this fraction has the
opposite effect on the cold discharge. The total duty for reheating de­
creases from 12.0 MW to 2.0 MW. The outlet temperature of cold
discharge in heater Qr increases from 60℃ to a very high temperature as
the hot discharge fraction increase. The hot discharge fraction has a
maximum value, otherwise it is dangerous to vaporize at 106℃. The
maximum recommended value of hot discharge fraction is 60 % for
safety reasons.
Fig. 9 presents the influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the
required exchanger area of upstream process. The required exchanger
area changes little as the feed temperature increases but increases
rapidly when the temperature value exceeds 80℃. The area decreases
little with the fraction increases when the feed temperature is lower than
70℃, while it increases sharply at a higher temperature. This is due to
the reduction of heat transfer temperature difference. The maximum
feasible temperature is recommended to be 75℃. When the hot
discharge fraction is 60 %, the required exchanger area varies from 837
m2 to 1,297 m2 as the hot feed temperature increases from 40℃ to 75℃.
When the hot feed temperature is 75℃, the required exchanger area
varies from 1,173 m2 to 1,353 m2 as the hot discharge fraction increases
from 0 % to 60 %.
4.2. Minimum steam consumption design of HEN
Fig. 10 illustrates the maximum structure of schematic diagram and
HEN grid diagram for different hot direct discharge fraction. The
existing condensate of MP steam is fixed to heating the hot discharge and
the last stage of the cold discharge, while the existing Qr is fixed to
heating the first stage of the cold discharge. The minimum steam con­
sumption for different hot direct discharge fraction can be calculated by
Eqs. (1)–(8). Therefore, the duty of latent heat and sensible heat is
determined for different hot discharge fraction. The rest cold stream is
S. Liu et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161

Fig. 16. Schematic diagram of original HEN grid diagram.

either heated by latent heat and sensible heat. Then the UEN of down­ process is only 460 m2 when the fraction is 60 %. At this time, the steam
stream process is synthesized under HEN algorithm based on the mini­ condensate provides 6.0 MW heat for cold streams.
mum steam principle. The number of heat exchangers can be reduced to
seven after PSO optimization. The result shows that the hot source of
4.3. Techno-economic analysis
stream C3 can be LP steam only at different hot discharge fraction. This
is because they have the smallest temperature difference. Only one
Fig. 13 presents the influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the
stream in the undetermined steams is heated by latent heat and sensible
operating cost. The operating cost includes the cost in the hot direct
heat at the same time.
feed/discharge region and the downstream process. The result shows
The HEN grid diagrams for downstream process under different hot
that the operating cost decreases with the increase of the feed temper­
discharge condition are illustrated in Fig. 11. As is shown in T-H dia­
ature. When the hot discharge fraction is 60 %, the operating cost de­
gram, hot utility curve is constructed to target the minimum steam
creases from 1.18 M$ to 0.70 M$ as the feed temperature increases from
flowrate for several scenarios. The scope of the chart is consistent to
45℃ to 90℃. This is due to the reduction of required LP steam in
ensure that it shows differences clearly under different conditions. The
methanol distillation. The operating cost decreases with the increase of
results show that the flowrate of LP steam is 16.1, 13.1 and 10.0 t/h for
the hot discharge fraction. When the hot feed temperature is 75℃, the
hot discharge fraction at 20 %, 40 % and 60 %. The detail stream
operating cost decreases from 1.18 M$ to 0.86 M$ as the hot discharge
matching is shown in the HEN diagrams.
fraction increases from 0 % to 60 %. This is due to the reduced hot de­
Fig. 12 presents the influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the
mand of the cold discharge stream.
downstream process. Key variable is only the hot discharge fraction, and
Fig. 14 presents the influence of hot direct feed/discharge on the
the minimum temperature difference is 15℃. The heat flow of LP and SC
capital cost. The capital cost includes the cost in the hot direct feed/
at different hot discharge fractions is also shown on the graph. The result
discharge region and the downstream process. The capital cost changes a
shows that the required exchanger area decreases with the increase of
little as the feed temperature increases, but increases rapidly when the
the hot discharge fraction. This is due to the hot demand for cold streams
temperature exceeds 80℃. The cost decreases a little with the increase
is decreased as the hot discharge fraction increases. The latent heat of LP
of the hot discharge fraction. The capital cost varies from 0.32 M$ to
steam decreases from 11.0 MW to 5.7 MW as the hot discharge fraction
0.45 M$ when the feed temperature increases from 40℃ to 75℃. The
increases from 0 % to 60 %. The required exchanger area of downstream
maximum difference of capital cost varies from 0.047 M$ to 0.085 M$

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S. Liu et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161

Fig. 17. Schematic diagram of optimal HEN grid diagram.

Table 3
Heat exchanger information of original design and optimal design.
Unit original HEN Optimal HEN

Name Area/ Cost /(×103 Name Area/ Cost /(×103

m2 $) m2 $)

Part E1 9324 977 E1 9225 968

A
E2 10,217 1055 E2 10,217 1055
E3 627 106 E3 1994 269
E4 3103 388 E4 2516 326
E5 2516 326 E5 1757 243
E6 1757 243 E6 1899 259
E7 1899 259 – – –
Part B E8 522 92 E7 327 65
E9 774 125 E8 231 50
– – – E9 626 106
– – – E10 114 31
Part E10 190 44 E11 36 17
C
E11 316 63 E12 83 26
E12 155 38 E13 58 21
E13 50 20 E14 18 13
E14 58 21 E15 153 38
– – – E16 111 31
Fig. 18. Utilities duty of original design and optimal design.

12
S. Liu et al.
Fig. 19. Techno-economic analysis of original design and optimal design.
for different hot discharge fraction.
Fig. 15 illustrates the optimal schematic diagram integrating with
hot direct feed/discharge strategy and minimum steam consumption
design. The hot feed temperature is 75℃, and the hot discharge fraction
is 60 %. The schematic diagram of original and optimal HEN grid dia­
grams are shown in Fig. 16 and Fig. 17. The MP steam in part A is
eliminated by heat transfer enhancement. The heat duty provided by
stream S204 to stream S106 and S217 is increased from 135.2 MW to
156.82 MW, and the outlet temperature of stream S204 is decreased
from 99℃ to 87℃. The required LP in part B is decreased to 10.62 MW
after applying the hot feed. This feed is heated by S212, discharge
stream and PW. The HEN is redesigned for the variation of the hot
discharge stream. The cold discharge is heated to 89.8℃ by Qr in the
MTO reactor. Then it is heated to 94.9℃ by LP steam. Finally, it is mixed
with the hot discharge and heated by the existing steam condensate of
MP steam. Stream C1 and C3 are heated by SC and LP steam. As for the
stream C1, the heat duty provided by LP steam and SC are 3.31 MW and
2.89 MW. The rest stream C2 and C3 are heated by LP steam only.
The heat exchanger information of original design and optimal
design is shown in Table 3. The number of heat exchanger of optimal
design is 16, which is 2 more than the original design. The required
exchanger area of optimal design is 29,365 m2, which is 6.8 % lower
than the original design. The biggest challenge is that this strategy re­
quires higher operation synchronization of different equipment. Retrofit
projects may be restricted by equipment layout.
The utilities duty of original design and optimal design is shown in
Fig. 18. The results show that the optimal design decreased hot utility
and cold utility by 32.24 MW and 29.14 MW. The consumption of MP
steam, LP steam, AC and CW are decreased by 21.62 MW, 10.62 MW,
21.62 MW and 7.52 MW, respectively. Among them, the steam
condensate provided 6.0 MW heat, which accounts for 51 % of hot
source in optimal design.
The techno-economic analysis for original HEN and the optimal HEN
is shown in Fig. 19. It can be seen that the capital cost of the optimal
HEN is 3.52 M$, which is 6 % lower than the original HEN of 3.76 M$. It
is mainly contributed to the reduced equipment in hot feed/discharge
region. The operating cost of the original HEN and the optimal HEN is
4.68 M$ and 1.59 M$. Compared with the original HEN, the optimal
HEN decreases the operating cost by 66 %. It is mainly contributed to the
reduced MP steam duty in the MS unit as well as LP steam duty in the hot
feed/discharge region and the downstream process. The total annual
cost of the optimal HEN is 2.72 M$, which is 54 % lower than that of the
original HEN. The results indicate that the optimal HEN has a better
economic performance.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 207 (2022) 118161
5. Conclusion
Chemical processes usually pay less attention to the linking process
for adjacent units or plants, causing repeated utility consumption and
excessive equipment investment. This study explored the optimization
for heat exchanger network based on the proposed hot direct feed/
discharge strategy. The study case was a 0.6 Mt/y coal-to-olefin plant,
and the hot direct feed/discharge streams were set at the linking area
between the methanol plant and the olefin plant. This strategy regulated
the temperature distribution and improved the freedom of energy
comprehensive optimization. The heat integration in hot direct feed/
discharge region took into consideration the streams in both the up­
stream process and the downstream process, and HEN synthesis was
conducted based on the T-H diagram. The heat integration in the
downstream process achieved the minimum steam consumption using
both the latent heat and the sensible heat of steam. Key parameters of
the optimal design were investigated. The hot feed temperature was set
to 75 ◦ C, while the hot feed fraction was 100 %. The hot discharge
temperature was 93 ◦ C, while the hot discharge fraction was 60 %. The
results showed that the optimal design decreased hot utilities and cold
utilities 32.24 MW and 29.14 MW. The steam condensate provided 6.0
MW heat, which was provided by the latent heat of steam originally. The
main retrofit for energy saving was to reduce the MP steam in the MS
plant as well as the LP steam in the hot feed/discharge region and
downstream process. Techno-economic analysis showed that the capital
cost of the optimal HEN was 3.52 M$, 6 % lower than the original HEN
of 3.76 M$. The operating cost of the optimal HEN was 1.59 M$, 66 %
lower than the original HEN of 4.68 M$. The total annual cost of the
optimal HEN was reduced by 54 %, indicating the economic feasibility
of the optimal HEN.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for financial support from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21736004 and No.
21676101).
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