International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117

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International Journal of Refrigeration

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

Economic Analysis of Separation Unit of Methanol to Propylene Production

Based on Optimization of Refrigeration Cycles Using Pinch and
Exergy Analysis
Analyse économique de l’unité de séparation de la production de méthanol en propylène
basée sur l’optimisation des cycles de réfrigération à l’aide de l’analyse Pinch et Exergy

Davood Safari 1, Norollah Kasiri 1, *, Amirhossein Khalili-Garakani 2, Mostafa Mafi 3

1
Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) Laboratory, School of Chemical, Petroleum & Gas Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
2
Chemical & Process Engineering Department, Niroo Research Institute (NRI), Tehran, 146861-3113, Iran
3
Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

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

Keywords: In this study, optimization and economic analysis of the separation of light gases in the methanol to propylene,
Low temperature separation unit MTP, process along with refrigeration cycles design are performed, by using pinch and exergy analysis. In the
Methanol to propylene process course of the separation process optimization and refrigeration cycles design, by using a Visual Basic, VB, pro­
Refrigeration cycles
gram and genetic algorithm, GA, rigorous distillation simulation is carried out, then streams information is
Pinch and exergy analysis
Economic analysis
employed to find optimum temperature levels, corresponding to tower condenser temperature, by minimizing
Optimization the areas between the Exergy Grand Composite Curve, EGCC, and constant temperature levels of refrigeration
Mots clés:
cycles. Economic calculations were performed to obtain the lowest total annual cost, TAC, for refrigeration
Unité de séparation à basse température cycles, towers and other equipment. Two cases of the direct and indirect sequences are examined through the
Procédé de transformation du méthanol en developed framework, inspection of their results represents that the operational cost has a significant contri­
propylène bution to the TAC. As a result, heat integration would reduce it by nearly 60%. Also, scrutinized analysis of the
Cycles de réfrigération optimization results, especially by considering the TAC and its contributions, for the direct and indirect se­
Analyse du pincement et de l’exergie quences, leads to the conclusion that indirect sequence would exhibit lower cost for light gas separation. The
Analyse économique framework represented herein paves a way to the systematic design of integrated low-temperature separation
Optimisation
processes with refrigeration cycles.

cascade systems, using them for supplying the required cooling at

1. Introduction
Distillation is one of the most expensive sections of chemical and
petrochemical units, and if the distillation towers operate below
ambient temperature, these costs will be much higher, therefore, opti­
mization of this section has great of importance (Tahouni, Hassan
Panjeshahi & Ataei, 2011, Quirante, Caballero & Grossmann, 2017,
Chen et al., 2015, Tahouni et al., 2013, Cirera et al., 2020). In conven­
tional low-temperature processes (Lee, Smith & Zhu, 2002), when the
required refrigerant is distributed over a wide range of temperatures, a
cascade cooling system is usually used to supply the required cooling
load. Due to higher investment and operational costs of the cryogenic
low-temperature levels soars the total unit costs to a significant extent.
As a result, the design of more energy-efficient and low-cost refrigera­
tion systems provides a substantial impact on the operation,
fuel-consumption, environment, and economics of a plant. A great deal
of attention has widely been paid to the optimal design of processes to
obtain sustainable and low-cost processes. Two general methods for
integrating cryogenic systems and separation processes have been pre­
sented: 1) Sequential method 2) Simultaneous method (Chen et al.,
2015, Tahouni et al., 2013, Lee, Smith & Zhu, 2002). In what follows, a
brief review is given on the design and development of low-temperature
processes focusing, in particular, on the optimal design of integrated
separation process with refrigeration cycles.

* Corresponding author:
E-mail address: capepub@cape.iust.ac.ir (N. Kasiri).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2022.09.029
Received 30 March 2022; Received in revised form 12 September 2022; Accepted 28 September 2022
Available online 7 October 2022
0140-7007/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
D. Safari et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117

Nomenclature Greek letters

ηc : Carnot factor
P: Working pressure (bar) ηex : Efficiency
T0: Ambient temperature (◦ C) Δ(σT0 ): Area change
T: Working temperature (◦ C) ΔHvap: Evaporation enthalpy
W: Shaft work consumption (kW) v: Molar volume
H: Stream Enthalpy (Kj) β: Coefficient of annual depreciation
n1: First tower stripping tray number
n2: First tower rectifying tray number Abbreviation
n3: Second tower stripping tray number VB: Visual Basic
n4: Second tower rectifying tray number EGCC: Exergy Grand Composite Curve
R: Ideal gas constant (Jk− 1mol− 1) ECC: Exergy Composite Curve
a: Equation of state parameter (J m3 mol− 2) GCC: Grand Composite Curve
b: Equation of state parameter (cm3 mol− 1) TAC: Total Annual Cost
x: Mole fraction GA: Genetic Algorithm
i: Constituent HEN: Heat Exchanger Network
kij : Interaction parameter MTP: Methanol to Propylene
SI: Objective Function MESH: Material, Equilibrium, Summation, Heat
Nt : Total number of trays EOS: Equation of State
xLK : Purity of light component WCI: Working Capital Investment
yHK : Purity of heavy component LPG: Liquefied Petroleum Gas
QC : Condenser duty (Kw) FCI: Fixed Capital Investment
QB : Reboiler duty (Kw) Abbreviation used for blocks in figures
Qutly : utility duty (Kw) C: Compressor
Subscript E: Heat exchanger
A: Hydrogen, Methane V: Flash drum
B: Ethylene MIX: Static mixer
C: Ethane T: Distillation tower
Q: Heat exchanger heat load

Tahouni et al. (Tahouni, Hassan Panjeshahi & Ataei, 2011) have
divided the challenge of design and development of low-temperature
processes into five major groups, including the selection of a suitable
sequence, selection of separating units, and determination of proper
operating conditions, designing refrigeration cycles, and using appro­
priate refrigerants. Khalili-Garakani et al. (Khalili-Garakani, Ivakpour &
Kasiri, 2016) presented a new method for the reduction of search space
of distillation tower sequence synthesis based on process integration
methods by using exergy analysis. Their results indicated that the
method could reduce the burden of calculation between 11 and 50%,
depending on the physical and thermodynamic characteristics of
three-component mixtures. Ivakpour et al. (Whitley, 1994) presented a
method for sequencing the synthesis of distillation towers by using the
separation matrix. Tahouni et al. (Tahouni et al., 2013) proposed a
design method, composed of three levels modifications and employed it
to optimize the separation unit of a hydrocarbon thermal cracking
process. Comparing the results of these modifications indicated that the
highest efficiency could be obtained by simultaneous modifying column
parameters and refrigeration temperature levels. In the course of these
researches, stochastic and deterministic methods are employed, where
GA (Whitley, 1994) has been utilized extensively to optimize distillation
column problems due to its computational efficiency and robust per­
formance (Tahouni, Hassan Panjeshahi & Ataei, 2011, Tahouni et al.,
2013, Khalili-Garakani, Ivakpour & Kasiri, 2016, Leboreiro & Acevedo,
2004, Ivakpour & Kasiri, 2009, Low & Sørensen, 2005, Tahouni, Smith
& Panjeshahi, 2010, Austbø, Løvseth & Gundersen, 2014).
On the other hand, pinch and exergy analysis (Dhole & Linnhoff,
1994, Linnhoff & Dhole, 1992) have received a great deal of attention
over the recent years to design heat exchanger networks, HEN, and
reduce the power consumption of a wide range of chemical and me­
chanical plants (Esen, Inalli & Esen, 2006, Esen, Inalli & Esen, 2007,
Esen et al., 2007, Zhang & Liu, 2017, Kencse & Mizsey, 2010,
Montanez-Morantes, Jobson & Zhang, 2016, Dinh, Zhang & Xu, 2015,
Yu et al., 2019, He & Lin, 2020). Esen et al. (Esen et al., 2007) employed
exergy analysis to study ground-coupled heat pump systems as a func­
tion of depth. Their calculations indicated that exegetic efficiency could
vary significantly by a change in geometry characteristics of the system
and its operating conditions. As a result, it is a valuable tool for evalu­
ating system efficiency and reproducing the experimental results of
heating/cooling systems. Zhang et al. (Zhang & Liu, 2017) investigated
the distillation column pressure effect on the composite curve and pro­
posed a systematic method for identifying the minimum heating and
cooling utility without plotting the composite curves, as well as the
variation of the pinch point. Kencse and Mizsey (Kencse & Mizsey, 2010)
presented a process design methodology for energy-integrated distilla­
tion systems based on energetic, economic, and greenhouse gas emission
aspects. Their results indicated that the direct sequence with backward
heat-integration poses the highest average relative emission saving, and
as a result, it showcases the most flexible range of applications.
Montanez-Morantes et al. (Montanez-Morantes, Jobson & Zhang, 2016)
presented a methodology for the optimization of multi-stage refrigera­
tion cycles, by taking equipment constraints, including compressors’
shaft rotation speed, minimum and maximum allowable inlet flow rates
into account. Their results indicated an improvement of around 3% in
compressors’ shaft work demand. Zhang and Xu (Dinh, Zhang & Xu,
2015) presented a new four-stage procedure for optimal process syn­
thesis of cascade refrigeration cycles by considering HEN, and its con­
figurations in exergy analysis. Yu et al. (Yu et al., 2020) presented an
advanced exergy analysis and an exergoeconomic analysis for cascade
absorption refrigeration systems, and their results indicated that 24.44%
of the exergy destruction rate, 23.80% of the exergy destruction cost
rate, and 17.68% of the investment cost rate can be avoided by
employing the proposed optimization method. Moreover, the mixed
refrigerant cooling cycles attracted intensive attention by researchers to

109
D. Safari et al.
minimize the compressor’s shaft work (Cirera et al., 2020, He & Lin,
2020, Mafi, Amidpour & Naeynian, 2009, Yin et al., 2008, Moein et al.,
2015, Tak et al., 2015, Hatcher, Khalil pour & Abbas, 2012). To cite an
example, Mafi et al. (Mafi, Amidpour & Naeynian, 2009) investigated
the application of a mixed refrigerant, including methane, ethane, pro­
pane and nitrogen, to find a superior alternative for the pure ethylene
refrigeration cycle which is used in conjunction with the propylene
refrigeration cycle in the Olefin unit of Tabriz petrochemical complex,
by using pinch and exergy analysis. Their results indicated that optimal
refrigerant mixture composition, optimal high and low operating pres­
sures, and optimal arrangement of the cycle components could signifi­
cantly enhance the thermodynamic performance of the refrigeration
system.
Despite the fact that a considerable amount of effort and research has
been devoted to developing optimization methods of integrated plants
and casting light on their characteristics, there are still shortcomings to
be considered. First, the shortcut mode has been widely utilized in the
optimization simulations of separation units to alleviate computational
burden and costs. Also, due to interactions between the separation unit
and refrigeration systems, it is impossible to unpick and dissect them as
non-interacting units, which is lacking in previous research. On the
other hand, previous investigations focused on the optimization of olefin
and Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, unites. As a result, many other crit­
ical chemical units, such as the current example MTP process, remain
unattended. In the course of this work, we aim to present optimization
and economic analysis of the separation of light gases, direct and indi­
rect sequence, in the propylene production process from methanol along
with refrigeration cycles by using pinch and exergy analysis. A VB
program is developed for performing simulations, and GA is employed
for refrigeration cycles design and optimization of the integrated sepa­
ration process. In the first stage of this work, by providing sensitivity
analysis on heat duty of distillation column condenser and reboilers, the
dependency of operational costs on columns length and pressure is
presented. In the second stage, results along with a proper interpretation
of the proposed procedure for the direct and indirect sequence of the
light gases separation, in comparison with the available simulation re­
sults, are given.
2. Process description, simulation and optimization
2.1. Separation unit description
The MTP process, the optimization of the separation unit of which is
the subject of this research, has a capacity of 450,000 tones/year of
propylene, 22,000 tones/year of ethylene, and 180,000 tones/year of
LPG. The light gas separation unit consists of two distillation towers
working below ambient temperature due to the boiling point of the
mixture component. The feed of the light gas separation unit of this
Fig. 1. A schematic representation of (a) direct, and (b) indirect sequences for three-component mixture separation process (Smith, 2005)
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International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117
process is a mixture of hydrogen, methane, ethane, and ethylene under
the condition of 30 bar and -40◦ C, and it is intended to separate them
with 99% purity. The detailed specifications of the separation unit’s feed
and product streams are provided in Table A.1. A ternary mixture of
light gases can be separated into pure components through direct and
indirect sequences (Smith, 2005), as illustrated schematically in Fig. 1.
In order to supply the required cooling in the light gases separation
unit, the cascade refrigeration systems that have been used in many
petrochemical units such as the Olefin production unit, including cool­
ing water at ambient temperature, propylene and ethylene refrigeration
cycles, is chosen and shown in Figs. A.1 (a) and (b) (Mafi, Amidpour &
Naeynian, 2009). Due to the presence of the same components in the
light gas separation unit’s feed of MTP and Olefin plants and subsequent
similarity in operating conditions, the cryogenic refrigeration cycle used
in Olefin plants can be employed in this study.
The propylene cooling cycle, as represented in Fig. A.1 (a) is multi-
stage and provides three temperature levels of -35◦ C, -20◦ C, and 5◦ C.
It should be mentioned that these values of temperature levels are ob­
tained from Reference (Mafi, Amidpour & Naeynian, 2009) as a con­
ventional design of the unit, and the highest and middle of them will be
used as an independent optimization variable to minimize energy con­
sumption as described in the following sections. In this refrigeration
cycle, the compressor suction side provides a temperature of -35◦ C, and
the temperatures of -20◦ C and 5◦ C correspond with pressures of 3 and
6.8 bar, respectively. For condensation of the compressor’s outlet
stream, cooling is done by using air, water and ethylene coolants in
several heat exchangers, before being passed through the throttle valve.
Then liquid-vapor enters separator drums to provide the different tem­
perature levels of the refrigeration cycles. Fig. A.1 (b) shows the
ethylene refrigeration cycle with two temperature levels of -65◦ C and
-101◦ C, as a designed configuration, which will be considered as inde­
pendent variables for optimization of the process. The compressor
discharge pressure is set to 20.2 bar, which is the minimum pressure that
is possible to condense ethylene by using a propylene cycle (Mafi,
Amidpour & Naeynian, 2009). As it is seen in Fig. A.1 (a), the com­
pressor’s superheated ethylene is cooled in four steps by water, pro­
pylene at 5◦ C, propylene at -20◦ C, and propylene at -35◦ C in heat
exchangers E-504, E-505, E-506, and E-507, respectively, to reach to the
temperature of -30.4◦ C, and then followed by a pressure reduction to 6.3
and 1.18 bar in the throttle valves to obtain the desired temperature
levels. Full descriptions of the propylene and ethylene refrigeration
cycles, used in this study, are given in the Reference (Mafi, Amidpour &
Naeynian, 2009).
2.2. Exergy and pinch analysis method
Exergy and pinch analysis (Dhole & Linnhoff, 1994, Feng & Zhu,
1997) is widely used in multi-stage cooling systems (Mafi, Naeynian &
D. Safari et al.
Amidpour, 2009). In this method, Exergy Composite Curve, ECC and
EGCC are the essential tools. To construct a composite curve of the
separation unit, hot, cold, and utility streams are identified, their ther­
mal data are extracted, and for each interval heat flow and temperature
change are determined by considering the appropriate approach tem­
perature through the following equation (Dhole & Linnhoff, 1994, Feng
& Zhu, 1997).
{ • Heat transfer coefficients are considered constant across the heat
ΔT i = Ti − Ti+1
∑ ∑ (1)
ΔHi = cold Hi − hot Hi
Where T and H are streams’ temperatures and enthalpies, respec­
tively. The ECC curve can be obtained by calculating the Carnot factor
from the composite curve chart. The Carnot factor is given as Eq. (2)
(Dhole & Linnhoff, 1994, Feng & Zhu, 1997):
ηc = 1 −
T0
(2)
T simulation and optimization of the methanol to propylene process, two
Where, T0 is the ambient temperature and ηc is the Carnot factor. It
can be approved that the area variations between cold and hot streams
in the ECC and EGCC diagrams are equal to the variations of work
consumption in the refrigeration cycles, and this can be expressed by Eq.
(3) (Low & Sørensen, 2005):
1
ΔẆ = × Δ(σT0 )HEN (3)
ηex
hereΔẆis the variation of work consumption by changing the temper­
ature levels of the refrigeration cycles, ηex is the efficiency before the
temperature levels change, and Δ(σ T0 )HEN is the area change between
the hot and cold streams in the EGCC diagram. This method assumes that
the exergy efficiency of the refrigeration cycle does not change with
changing temperature levels. (Dhole & Linnhoff, 1994). Fig. A.2 illus­
trates schematically the area between the process and the refrigeration
cycles streams, which should be minimized during refrigeration cycle
design.
2.3. Optimization method
In this study, TAC is defined as a dependent variable, based on
operating cost and fixed investment, and linear depreciation of 12 years.
Besides, the temperature levels of ethylene and propylene refrigeration,
as described in Section 2.1, along with characteristics of distillation
tower, are considered independent variables as follows:
• Working pressure of the towers
• Number of tower trays
• The pressure of the second and third stages of the propylene refrig­
eration cycle compressor
• The pressure of the first and second stages of the ethylene refriger­
ation cycle compressor
Therefore, the objective function of the optimization for each
sequence (Si ) can be expressed as follows:
(
TAC = βCFCI ({Si }, P, Nt , xLK , yHK , QC , QB ) + CWCI {Si }, Qutly , W
) Preliminary to perform exergy and pinch analysis, rigorous simula­
Here CFCI and CWCI are capital and operating cost of the plant
respectively. P is the tower operating pressure, Nt is the total number of
trays, xLK and yHK are purity of light and heavy keys in tower products,
respectively. Condenser and reboiler heat duties, and utility is repre­
sented by QC , QB and Qutly , respectively. The shaft work of the com­
pressors of the refrigeration cycles is presented by W, and β is the
coefficient of annual depreciation.
To proceed with the optimization problem, assumptions are made as
follows:
• Mixture to be separated does not form azeotropes.
111
International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117
• Purity of the components in the product streams is 0.99 by molar
basis.
• The pressure drop across the distillation towers is negligible.
• The approach temperature for exergy analysis and heat exchanger
design is 2◦ C.
• The heat exchangers provide constant temperature, and pressure
change is negligible.
exchangers with values of 600 and 500 W/m2 K.
It should be mentioned that the three temperature levels (-35◦ C,
-20◦ C and 5◦ C) along with other required parameters and characteristics
are kept from reference (Mafi, Amidpour & Naeynian, 2009) as a con­
ventional three-stage propylene refrigeration cycle to avoid the
complication of the unit design with considering unnecessary aspects
and points of the optimization problem. However, to proceed with
of them, namely the highest and the middle temperatures, are consid­
ered as independent optimization variables during the propylene cycle
design. The key point regarding the consideration of the lowest tem­
perature level as constant with the value of -35◦ C, is that it corresponds
to the lowest temperature, which can be utilized for ethylene conden­
sation in the ethylene refrigeration cycle’s condenser. This point has
been discussed thoroughly in the Reference (Mafi, Naeynian & Amid­
pour, 2009). Therefore, it is evident that a higher temperature value of
this level would lead to a failure in the ethylene refrigeration cycle.
Conversely, lower values of temperature cannot be provided due to
physical constraints on refrigeration cycles.
The pressure variation range is 30<P<40bar and the number of trays
of the direct sequence is varied within 0<n1<24, 0<n2<45 for the first
column and, 70<n3<150, and 30<n4<110 for the second one. It is
noteworthy that the lower bound of the pressure is determined by the
fact that at lower pressures of 30 bar, it should be added methane
refrigeration cycle to other refrigeration cycles (propylene and ethylene
refrigeration cycles) for condensation of component A. Since the dew
point of the mixture of methane and hydrogen, with the composition of
purity needed as mentioned in Table A.1, would not condense at tem­
peratures higher than -100◦ C therefore the lower bond of pressure
should be considered 30 bar. On the other hand, higher pressure induces
more difficult distillation separation because of a decrease in the value
of relative volatility. For instance, the relative volatility of ethylene to
ethane in Reference reduces from 1.30 to 1.15 when the operating
pressure increases from 30 to 40 bars. Also, there are construction
limitations for units working with operating pressures higher than 40
bars. Also, a range of trays’ number for the indirect sequence is chosen as
70<n1<150, and 30<n2<110 for the first column and, 0<n3<24,
0<n4<45 for the second, where the number with odd and even subscript
indicates the number of trays of rectifying and stripping sections,
respectively. Furthermore, these ranges are selected based on the
sensitivity of reboiler and condenser duty on trays numbers that will be
presented in the Results Section. All simulations are performed in HYSYS
8.8 environment, and for instance, a snapshot of direct sequence with all
streams for light gas sepatation of MTP unit is presented in Fig. A.3.
tion of light gas separation of MTP process, with the specified properties
of feed stream, product streams concentration and temperature con­
straints, in accordance with Tables A.1 and A.2 of Appendix A, is per­
formed and obtained results are used as the initial guess to solve
Material–Equilibrium–Summation–Heat, MESH, equations (Smith,
2005) in further simulations. Peng-Robinson equation of state is used in
simulation due to its suitability for natural gas processes (Lopez-Eche­
verry, Reif-Acherman & Araujo-Lopez, 2017).
RT a
P= − (4)
v − b v(v + b) + b(v − b)
Where P, T and v are the pressure, temperature, and molar volume,
D. Safari et al.
respectively. a and b are EOS parameters for mixture and obtained from
component parameters by the following mixing rule (Lopez-Echeverry,
Reif-Acherman & Araujo-Lopez, 2017).
∑∑ ( )0.5 ( ) refrigeration cycles is presented in Fig. 2.
a= xi xj ai aj 1 − kij (5)
i j
∑
b= xi bi
i
xi is mole of the components. During the simulation, the inside-out
method (Boston & Sullivan, 1974) is utilized to solve MESH equations
(Smith, 2005) by specifying solver tolerance and maximum iteration,
respectively, as 0.0001 and 1000 to ensure accuracy and precision of the
results. Also, a VB program was developed to manage and perform
simulations, optimization, and economic calculation by using an incre­
ment of 8 for the number of trays. After convergence of simulation files,
equipment sizing is performed, and then simulation results, including
inlet and outlet temperature and enthalpy change of streams along with
equipment sizing, are attained to be used in subsequent exergy and
pinch analyses. Then by using hot and cold streams information for
drawing the EGCC diagrams, the area minimization of the EGCC dia­
grams and the constant temperature lines of each level of the refriger­
ation cycle is performed through the GA optimization method. Then
obtained temperature results, corresponding to each pressure at the
intermediate steps of the refrigeration cycle, are employed for economic
calculations. A schematic of refrigeration cycles design by changing the
temperature levels is illustrated in Fig. A.2.
GA optimization is carried out by a population number of 50 and the
number of generations of 500. The double vector method (Whitley,
1994) generates a uniform initial population, and the mutation rate is
chosen as 0.01 to avoid local minimums. Also, an intersection rate of 0.9
and a single point operator are utilized to produce a new generation, and
calculation is terminated by the satisfaction of a dependent variable
error of 1e-6. Having determined the refrigeration cycles’ temperature
levels, the compressor power requirement was obtained to calculate the
operating cost. The amount of fixed investment for towers, heat ex­
changers, and compressors is evaluated with cost estimation equations,
obtained from reference (Boston & Sullivan, 1974), and summarized in
Appendix A. Afterwards, energy consumption, operating, and fixed costs
are calculated through the linear depreciation of 12 years. Then the TAC
Fig. 2. Flowchart of the optimization method using genetic algorithm through pinch analysis for integrated separation process with the refrigeration cycle
International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117
is determined by comparing the results and contrasting the optimal
state. For the sake of convenience, a flowchart of the employed pro­
cedure for optimization of the integrated separation process with the
3. Results and discussions
(6)
3.1. Assessment of energy consumption against tower length
In Figs. A4 (a) and (b) the condenser load of the dimethanizer and C2
splitter towers in a direct sequence of distillation have been presented as
a function of the number of trays in the rectifying and stripping sections,
respectively. As it is seen in these figures, when the number of trays
increases, the heat load diminishes due to the lower reflux ratio entering
the tower. Inspection of the results depicted in Fig. A.4, indicates that
the sensitivity of condenser heat load to each of these independent
variables is different, such that of the condenser heat load of second
tower is more affected by the change of the number of trays rectifying
section in compared with the tray number of stripping section. This
difference in sensitivity can be interpreted as the importance of the
stripping section in the ethylene separator tower because of the higher
ethylene content in the feed. By comparison of the condenser heat load
of the dimethanizer and C2 splitter towers, it can be concluded that the
relative volatility of methane and hydrogen to ethylene and ethane is far
higher than the relative volatility of ethylene to ethane. This behavior
arises from quite similar molecular volumes, shapes, and cross-
interaction strengths of ethane and ethylene (Shah, Siepmann & Tsa­
patsis, 2017), which make their separation industrially challenging and
energy-demanding. These observations are in line with reported results
by References (Shah, Siepmann & Tsapatsis, 2017, Barclay, Fiebbe &
Manley, 1982), and similar conclusions can be presented by inspecting
of variation of condenser duty by a change in the number of trays in the
first and second towers for indirect sequence. It should be noted that due
to the considerable price of the condenser heat load supplied by the
ethylene and propylene refrigeration cycles at below-ambient temper­
ature, this parameter is shown as a dependent variable as a function of
the section tray number.
112
D. Safari et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117

3.2. Effects of pressure on tower performance

Fig. 3 illustrates the effects of increasing pressure on the load of the

condenser for the direct sequence of distillation, for instance, for the
number of trays in the first tower (16, 29) and the second tower (86,
110), where the numbers in parenthesis represent, respectively, the tray
number of rectifying and stripping section. As the pressure of the towers
increases, separating the components becomes more difficult due to the
decrease in relative volatility. The ethylene/ethane volatility ratio de­
creases from 2.38 to 1.15 as pressure increases from 20 to 40 bar (Shah,
Siepmann & Tsapatsis, 2017, Barclay, Fiebbe & Manley, 1982). There­
fore, to produce a product with constant purity, a higher reflux ratio is to
be required which leads to an increase in the load of the condenser. This
can be elaborated in further detail by considering the double-edged ef­
fect of the pressure. Although the evaporation enthalpy (ΔHvap) de­
creases with an increase in the pressure, the relative volatility of the
components would decrease. The critical point is that the effect of
relative volatility is more effective, and consequently wins the compe­
tition, and as a result, separation becomes more difficult.
Nonetheless, the components’ boiling point increases with increasing
pressure so that the boiling point of the mixture of methane and
hydrogen, at the same concentration, increases from -102◦ C at 30 bar to
-95◦ C at 40 bar. Therefore, the temperature level required in the
dimethanizer condenser is increased and as a result, a decrease in the
required shaft work in the ethylene refrigeration cycle is observed. In
this cycle, the upper-limit of the compressor’s pressure is considered
constant due to the process restrictions, described before. However, the
compressor inlet pressure increases with increasing condenser temper­
ature since there is no need to low temperature cooling. On the other
hand, the required shaft work in the propylene refrigeration cycle would
increase. This effect on the required shaft work and its subsequent in­
terpretations can be evidently acquired by using the change of temper­
ature levels in the GCC, as illustrated in Fig. 4 (a). Since the area under
GCC is proportional to required shaft work; as a result, presented
interpretation of the pressure effect on required shaft work can be
justified by variation of the enclosed area. This behavior for shaft work
will be discussed in more details in the following section by illustration
of optimization results.

3.3. Compressor shaft work optimization
Having performed the simulations for a specified pressure and
number of trays, stream process data, namely inlet temperature, outlet
temperature, and enthalpy change, along with equipment sizing, is
utilized to perform ethylene and propylene refrigeration cycles design
through the mentioned method. It should be noted that, during the
design of refrigeration cycles and obtain optimal required shaft work,
Fig. 3. The impact of tower pressure on the condenser power consumption of
dimethanizer tower and C2 splitter for the direct sequence of distillation
Fig. 4. (a) optimal temperatures at 30 bar for the dimethanizer and C2 splitter
tower, for direct sequence of distillation, (b) GCC diagram of process and
modified GCC diagram
the EGCC diagram must be modified by taking the process flows of the
propylene refrigeration cycle into account. As mentioned earlier, the
compressor’s discharge ethylene stream is cooled by the propylene
streams in heat exchangers E-505, E-506, and E-507 (see Fig. A1 (a)). To
include these streams in EGCC calculation, the flow rate of ethylene
streams at each temperature level in the ethylene cycle is obtained and
then the required flow rate of propylene streams and their respective
enthalpy change, at the design temperature levels, is evaluated. Then
these new flows’ data alongside process simulation flow data, is used to
compute the modified EGCC diagram. This iterative procedure is
continued until the EGCC data difference in the two consecutive itera­
tions satisfies a constraint of summation difference of 0.01. After this
step, the objective function is determined and the output is introduced to
the GA tool. Fig. 4 (b) depicts examples of the results of the EGCC graph
process along with modified EGCC, by including new streams. As can be
seen, the origin of the difference in this diagram is in the region corre­
sponding to the temperature range of the propylene refrigeration cycle,
attributed to the addition of 3 propylene streams over this temperature
range. Also, moving the graph to the left demonstrates a reasonable
trend, given the type of stream added and considering the cumulative
heat in the EGCC diagram.
Furthermore, Fig. 4(a) shows an example of obtained refrigeration
cycles by optimization procedure with obtained temperature levels, as

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D. Safari et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117

an example, for trays number of (13, 32) for the first tower and (110,
118) for the second tower. As shown in Fig. 4(a), most of the exergy
losses are on the propylene refrigeration cycle due to high energy con­
sumption in the second tower. In this tower, ethylene and ethane sep­
aration are performed, in addition to the difficulty of separation, the
enthalpy changes of stream in this tower, due to higher flow rates and
thermal capacity, is significant compared to the first tower. This can be
interpreted from the slope of the EGCC diagrams in the area near the
pinch point and the bottom area of the diagram. This observation and its
interpretation are in line with results reported in Reference (Tahouni
et al., 2013).
Also, Fig. A.5 illustrates the trend of the EGCC area change against
the number of trays of rectifying and stripping sections of the C2 splitter.
Following previously mentioned interpretation, as the number of trays
increases, the tower reflux ratio reduces, and as a result, the heat load of
the condenser is decreased, leading to a decrease in compressor shaft
work of refrigeration cycles (Linnhoff & Dhole, 1992, Mafi, Naeynian &
Amidpour, 2009). On the other hand, by an increase in the tower
pressure, the boiling temperature of the component becomes higher; as a Fig. 6. Effects of pressure change on the shaft work required in refrigeration
cycles ethylene cycle, propylene cycle and total shaft work for the direct
result, the EGCC curve would smoothly move to higher values. This
sequence of distillation
behavior can be evidently seen by inspection of the pinch points in
Fig. 5. Also, the change in the EGCC curve by a variation in the pressure
would alter the compressor shaft work arisen by the change in 3.4. Economic optimization results
compressor compression ratio. This effect can be elaborated in details by
determination of refrigeration cycles’ shaft work as a function of the Optimization of light gas separation unit with refrigeration cycles is
operating pressure. performed through the described procedure, and obtained results are
Fig. 6 shows the effects of increasing pressure on the required shaft tabulated in Tables 2 and 3 for the direct and indirect sequence of sep­
work in the propylene, ethylene refrigeration cycles and their summa­ aration for two cases that are (i) with heat integration and (ii) without
tion, as examples, for (13, 32) trays number of dimethanizer tower and heat integration. Also, for sake of comparison, parameters and specifi­
(110, 118) of C2 splitter of the direct sequence of distillation. To cations of the base case for separating light gases in the MTP process are
calculate the compressor shaft work, the relation of polytropic multi- tabulated in Table 1. It should be mentioned that for TAC calculation,
stage compression (Halder, 2014) with 75% isentropic efficiency and cost of electricity, ethylene refrigerant at -103◦ C and propylene refrig­
0.98 average compressibility factor was used. Contrary to the ethylene erant at -35◦ C are considered 0.04 USD/kWh, 33.2 USD/GJ, and 13.2
cycle, the required compressor shaft work in the propylene refrigeration USD/GJ according to Reference (Seider, Seader & Lewin, 2003),
cycle increases with the tower pressure. In this refrigeration cycle, the respectively. As it is evidently seen in these Tables, heat integration and
low temperature (-35◦ C), is set as a constant and has not been varied using multi-level refrigeration cycles would reduce TAC by decreasing
during optimization. Therefore, as the tower pressure rises, and the operational cost. Since in the case of heat integration, the cost of two
pinch point is moved to higher temperatures (See Fig. 5), the compres­ compressors is considered in the calculation, it signifies that operational
sion ratio, and as a result compressor shaft work increase. However, the cost is substantial and shares a significant contribution on the TAC of the
summation of compressor shaft work of refrigeration cycles has a separation process. This observation can be ascribed to the low tem­
decreasing-increasing trend and after passing a minimum value at 34bar perature that the process is operating and agrees with the results re­
increases against pressure. (See Fig. 6) ported by other researchers (Tahouni et al., 2013, Mafi, Naeynian &
Amidpour, 2009). Also another reason can be presented for this reduc­
tion which is the change in operating pressure of the towers. In the base
case, a multi-pass heat exchanger was used for cooling the feed to enter
to the first tower, which eventually used propylene at -45◦ C to reach the

Table 1
Parameters and specifications of light gas separation in the MTP process (Base
case)
Specifications of the first tower
Pressure (bar) 30
Number of trays 25
Feed tray 10
Condenser duty (kW) 251
Reboiler duty (kW) 168
Specifications of the second tower
Pressure (bar) 15
Number of trays 140
Feed tray 90
Condenser duty (kW) 1127
Reboiler duty (kW) 1053
Ethylene cycle
Temperature level -104
Compressor power (kW) 280
Fig. 5. The effects of tower pressure on the GCC diagram for the number of Propylene cycle
Temperature level 4, -45
trays for the dimethanizer tower and the C2 splitter tower for the direct
Compressor power (kW) 450
distillation sequence

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D. Safari et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117

Table 2 and third stages of propylene refrigeration cycle. Therefore, the required
Parameters and optimal design specifications of light gas separation in the MTP shaft work for acquiring these levels would be lower, and as a result,
process for the direct distillation sequence TAC would be lessened. According to the heuristics (Smith, 2005,
Characteristics With integration Without integration Agrawal & Fidkowski, 1998), direct sequence should have superior
Specifications of the first tower
performance compared against the indirect, and it is also expected that
Pressure (bar) 40 30 the annual cost of this configuration would be less than that of indirect
Number of trays 56 10 sequence. However, pondering on the TAC of direct and indirect se­
Feed tray 32 5 quences indicates that there is a contrast between optimization and
Condenser duty (kW) 252 315
heuristics results. To explain this contradiction, several reasons may be
Reboiler duty (kW) 215 232
Investment ($) 165000 42000 introduced. First, heuristics has credibility for specific separation units,
Specifications of the second tower while a criterion based on rigorous simulation and economic evaluation
Pressure (bar) 40 30 would be more reliable in this respect and must be employed to establish
Number of trays 148 160 a judicious assessment between configurations. The second reason to
Feed tray 102 125
Condenser duty (kW) 992 1047
justify the contradiction is a change of the relative volatility of ethylene
Reboiler duty (kW) 994 1048 with respect to ethane. The presence of the volatile component in the
Investment ($) 927000 967000 first tower of indirect sequence results in the variation of relative vola­
Ethylene cycle tility, thereby, separation becomes easier. Besides, in direct sequence,
Temperature level(◦ C) -97, -42 -103
component C (ethane) must also be evaporated twice in the boiler,
Compressor power(kW) 150 -
Investment ($) 378000 - which has an adverse effect on energy efficiency because the latent
Propylene cycle energy of evaporation of ethane is relatively high compared to other
Temperature level( C)
◦
-35, -4.3, 7.5 -35 volatile components such as methane and hydrogen.
Compressor power(kW) 178 - In Fig. 7, pie chart representations for the contribution of different
Investment ($) 431000 -
costs on TAC for (a) direct and (b) indirect sequences of distillation with
Pinch point 11.68 14.61
TAC (USD/year) 304000 765000 heat integration are shown. As seen, Working Capital Investment, WCI,
has a significant contribution to the TAC, which can be attributed to the
below-ambient temperature of the process. Moreover, the fixed capital
cost of towers for the indirect sequence is lower than that of the direct
Table 3
Parameters and optimal design specifications of light gas separation in the MTP sequence. This behavior can be explained by the presence of the volatile
process for the indirect distillation sequence compound in the first tower of indirect sequence, which causes a vari­
ation in relative volatility of ethylene/ethane, thereby separation be­
Characteristics With integration Without integration
comes easier, and as a result, the number of trays, as well as the required
Specifications of the first tower reflux ratio, will be diminished. Another interesting point is that the cost
Pressure (bar) 34 37
of the propylene cycle’s compressor has a higher contribution to TAC in
Number of trays 92 84
Feed tray 54 54 comparison with that of the ethylene cycle’s compressor. This can be
Condenser duty (kW) 621 642 ascribed to the fact that the propylene cycle would provide the required
Reboiler duty (kW) 751 772 cooling for different sinks, namely the ethylene cycle, feed stream, and
Investment ($) 350000 310000
condensation in C2 splitter tower. According to Fig. 7 and Tables 1and 2,
Specifications of the second tower
Pressure (bar) 34 37
for the direct sequence, more than 50% of TAC is allocated to fixed costs,
Number of trays 44 28 while it is 44% in the indirect sequence. This observation is in line with
Feed tray 10 18 the fact that the working capital cost has a substantial contribution to
Condenser duty (kW) 347 360 TAC for the plants working below the ambient temperature (Mafi,
Reboiler duty (kW) 139 152
Amidpour & Naeynian, 2009, Mafi, Naeynian & Amidpour, 2009).
Investment ($) 129000 85000
Ethylene cycle For the separation of the components ethylene and ethane, it is
Temperature level(◦ C) -103, -43 -103 necessary to use a tower with 148 trays, which increases the fixed costs
Compressor power(kW) 96 - in direct sequence as opposed to the indirect sequence. The impact of
Investment ($) 262000 -
this case is illustrated by the light blue color in the pie charts in Fig. 7.
Propylene cycle
Temperature level( C)
◦
-35, 8.62, 11.12 -35
The share of this section in TAC changes from 9% to 17%. While other
Compressor power(kW) 265 - equipment cost such as heat exchangers and ethylene refrigeration cycle
Investment ($) 592000 is almost the same for these two configurations. However, as it can be
Pinch point 12.29 18 evidently seen major changes have taken place in the refrigeration cycle
TAC(USD/year) 254000 685000
of propylene and working capital cost.
The results of this study can be analyzed in the environmental and
feed temperature to -40◦ C. In the new optimized design, according to the green house emission aspects, which life on earth is confronted with.
modified GCC diagrams, it is apparent that the second stage of the Refrigeration systems are one of the most expensive and energy-
ethylene cycle with the temperature of -43◦ C is used in this heat consuming units in the petrochemical and oil industries. Where
exchanger. This means that in the base design, the ethylene cycle is used driving force is required to rotate compressors, it is provided by steam
only for heat exchange in dimethanizer’s condenser and the rest of the turbines or electric motors, driven by fossil fuels. Use of fossil fuels leads
heat is cooled by using propylene cycle. By comparing the optimum to increased greenhouse gas emissions, and when plant economical
results and base case data, the required shaft work reduction for the optimization is targeted, the energy consumption for refrigeration
ethylene refrigeration cycle was nearly 40% and almost 60% for the compressors is reduced and optimized. Economical optimization leads to
propylene refrigeration cycle. a reduction in the required shaft work and eventually TAC. Economic
Besides, the comparison of TAC for the direct and indirect sequences optimization of refrigeration systems can reduce the high-pressure
of the separation process indicates that the latter has lower TAC. This steam or electricity required for rotating compressors, as a result,
observation can be explained by the level of propylene refrigeration greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced.
cycle where the indirect has higher levels of temperature for the second

115
D. Safari et al.
Fig. 7. Pie chart representation for contribution of different costs on TAC for (a) direct and (b) indirect sequence of distillation with heat integration. Colors are as:
WCI (yellow), tower 1 (dark blue), tower 2 (light blue), heat exchangers (green blue) ethylene cycle’s compressor (light green), propylene cycle’s
compressor (brown).
4. Conclusion
In this study, integrated optimization of the light gas separation unit
in the MTP process with ethylene and propylene refrigeration cycle,
based on pinch and exergy analysis, was performed by utilizing the GA
method. By using a VB program, the direct and indirect separation
sequence was simulated within the pressure range of 30<P<40bar and a
number of trays ranging 0<n1<24, 0<n2<45 for the dimethanizer tower
and 70<n3<150, and 30<n4<110 for the C2 splitter. Then, by using
stream data and equipment sizing, pinch and exergy analysis was carried
out; the optimal refrigeration cycle design, based on the minimized
compressor shaft work, was employed to determine the economically-
optimal unit, based on total fixed investment and annual operating
costs. The process simulation results showed that by increasing the
number of trays, the condenser and reboiler heat loads decreased. On the
other hand, the simulation results also show that pressure increase
makes separations more difficult, and the heat load of the condenser and
reboiler increase. At the same time, increasing the pressure initially
decreases the required shaft work for refrigeration cycle compressors
followed by an increase. Inspection of results indicated that operational
cost is significant, and as a result, heat integration can reduce TAC by
nearly 60%. Also, scrutinized analysis over the optimization results,
especially by considering the TAC for the direct and indirect sequence,
leads to this conclusion that indirect sequence would exhibit superior
performance for light gas separation.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Davood Safari: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Visual­
ization, Writing – original draft. Norollah Kasiri: Supervision, Writing –
review & editing. Amirhossein Khalili-Garakani: Data curation, Re­
sources. Mostafa Mafi: Software, Resources, Data curation.
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.
Appendix A
The Appendix A consists of the following items:
• Input feed flow information and distillation tower constraints for
direct and indirect sequence of distillation tower, Table A1 and
Table A2
• Stream data of direct and indirect sequence of distillation tower for
pinch analysis of process, Table A3 and Table A4
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International Journal of Refrigeration 146 (2023) 108–117
• Cost estimation relations for economic calculation
• A schematic representation of three-stage propylene, and two-stage
ethylene refrigeration cycles, Fig. A.1
• Schematic diagram of the refrigeration cycle optimization by
changing temperature levels, Fig. A.2
• Snapshot of light gas separation unit in MTP process with direct
sequence along with involved streams in the pinch analysis, Fig. A.3
• Effects of tray numbers of tower on condenser power consumption of
(a) dimethanizer (b) C2 splitter for the direct sequence of distillation,
Fig. A.4
• Optimized EGCC surface area against a number of rays in sections
three and four in the second tower for the direct sequence of distil­
lation, Fig. A.5
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