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CHEG 5165 - Process Integration and Pinch Analysis
CHEG 5165 - Process Integration and Pinch Analysis
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Overview and content of the course
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Software Tools
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Outline
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Introduction
manufacturing facilities.
They span a wide range of industries including chemical,
petroleum, gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food,
microelectronics, metal, textile, and forestry products.
The performance of these industries is strongly
dependent on their engineering and engineers.
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Why do human synthesize, design, built and operate
chemical processes?
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Definitions of process integration
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Cont…
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What is unique in Process Integration (PI)?
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Categories of Process Integration:
One method of classification is based on the two main commodities consumed
and processed in a typical facility:
Energy and mass integration
“Energy integration” is a systematic methodology that provides a
fundamental understanding of energy utilization within the process and
employs this understanding in identifying energy targets and optimizing
heat-recovery and energy-utility systems.”
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Process synthesis and design
What Is Process Synthesis?
• ‘‘The discrete decision-making activities of conjecturing which of the
many available component parts one should use, and how they should be
interconnected to structure the optimal solution to a given design
problem’’
• Process synthesis is concerned with the activities in which the various
process elements are combined and the flow sheet of the system is
generated so as to meet certain objectives.
• Therefore, the aim of process synthesis (Johns 2001) is: ‘‘to optimize the
logical structure of a chemical process, specifically the sequence of steps
(reaction, distillation, extraction, etc.), the choice of chemical employed
(including extraction agents), and the source and destination of recycle 12
There are two important process synthesis models:
• Hierarchical approach
• Onion model
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Douglas (1985)
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Process synthesis and design
Operations? Desired
Available
Connectivity?
feedstock products
Conditions?
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Operations, connectivity and conditions
• Operations
– Reaction
– Separation of chemical mixtures
– Change of conditions (T, p or phase)
– Mixing or flow splitting of streams or batches
– Size enlargement or reduction for solids
– Task integration
• Connectivity
– Reaction and separation sections
– Vapour, liquid and solids processing sections
– Recycle and purge streams
• Operating conditions and equipment design specifications
– Temperature, pressure, flowrate, residence time, heat transfer area,
number of trays, feed tray location, …
(SSL2, p70,231)
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Process synthesis and design
Available
Operations? Desired
feedstocks Connectivity? products
Conditions?
Why is it difficult?
• A large number of operations
• Many ways to connect units
• An infinite choice operating conditions and equipment design
parameters
• We cannot try every possibility, or even come close to it
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Hierarchical Approach of Process Design
The classical hierarchical approach of conceptual design proposed by
Douglas is organized in eight levels
0. Input information.
1. Number of plants.
2. Input/output structure and connection of plants.
3. Recycle structure of simple plants.
4. Separation systems of simple plants:
General architecture: identify specific separation subsystems.
Vapor and gases recovery and separation system.
Solid recovery: getting valuable solids from solutions.
Liquid - separation system: separate products from liquid
mixtures.
Solid - separation system: separate solid products.
Combine the separation systems and study interactions
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5. Energy integration:
Pinch - point analysis for optimal heat and power saving.
Water minimization: design an efficient system for water recycling.
Solvent minimization: design an efficient system for solvent recycling.
6. Design alternatives.
7. Hazop analysis:
Identify the sources of hazards and risks.
Perform hazard and operability study.
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Source: Dimian, Alexandre C., Costin Sorin Bildea, and Anton A. Kiss.
Integrated design and simulation of chemical processes. Elsevier, 2014.
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The “Onion” Model (Smith and Linnhoff, 1995)
layered shells that become visible when you cut open an onion.
Inside out interpretation of onion model
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2nd layer
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3rd layer
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4th layer
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Cont…
Utilities
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Cont.…
Water management
Complete onion
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Three broad approaches to process synthesis
1. Modify an existing structure
‘Take an existing process and tweak it’
3. Superstructure optimisation
‘Take a very flexible structure with in-built redundancy and
simplify it’
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1. Synthesis by modifying an existing structure
Take an existing process for the same or a similar product and explore
modifications
– It is not really synthesis (the act of combining elements into
a coherent whole) because we start from a complete structure
– Add, delete or modify units to suit the desired product,
available feed or other conditions (cost of energy, water, …)
Advantages
• Quick way to start
• Uses a proven process
Disadvantages
• Suppresses innovation
• Flowsheet may be good for its original design conditions, but may
not be best for the current conditions of interest
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1. Synthesis by modifying an existing structure
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2. Synthesis by sequentially building up a new structure
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Three hierarchical views of process synthesis:
(i) SSL (Seider, Seader & Lewin)
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The synthesis tree concept
5. Task
3. Separations
1. integratio
Reaction n
4. T, p &
pathway phase
Abandoned 2. changes
infeasible Distribution
alternatives of chemicals
Competitive
alternatives
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Three hierarchical views of process synthesis:
(ii) Smith
Heat recovery
system But, you may need to
backtrack and revise
Heating & cooling previous layers
utilities
Water & effluent
treatment
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Three hierarchical views of process synthesis:
(iii) Douglas
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2. Synthesis by sequentially building up a new structure
– Advantages
• The design team is in control at each stage of the
process, and can gain a feeling for the issues
• Concerns such as safety and plant layout can be included
in the decision making process as the design proceeds
– Disadvantages
• At each stage, the best option is sought, but it may not be
possible to decide which is best without evaluating
competing options – consequently many designs must be
completed and optimised
• There is no guarantee that the optimum design is chosen
because it is not possible to evaluate every option
• Complex interactions between different parts of the
flowsheet may not be recognised and exploited
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3. Synthesis by superstructure optimisation
• A superstructure is a flowsheet that contains all feasible unit operations with
redundancy
superstructure
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A superstructure for the production of benzene from toluene and hydrogen
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Optimised flowsheet
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Setting up the optimisation problem
It may be formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP)
problem, for example:
T
z min c y f (x)
x,y
Objective function
h ( x) 0
g ( x) 0
Constraints
Ax a
By Cx d
x X {x | x R n , x L x xU }
Variable
y Y {y | y {0,1}m , Ey e} definitions
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y = binary variables: yi=1 if
Objective function: unit i is present, yi=0 if absent
minimise cost by
x = continuous variables,
varying x and y
T
z m in c y f ( x )
x ,y
e.g. reactor T and p,
recycle flowrate, tank
volume, heat transfer area
The process model:
material and energy
balances and design
equations
h ( x) 0 Process specifications,
e.g. purity ≥ 99%
g ( x) 0
Ax a Constraints to enforce
conditions such as… if
By Cx d reactor i is not present,
then it has zero volume
and zero inlet flowrate
Continuous variables bounded
by upper and lower limits
x X {x | x R n , x L x x U }
Binary variable restrictions, e.g.
select exactly one reactor y Y {y | y {0,1}m , Ey e}
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3. Synthesis by superstructure optimisation
• Advantages
– Many different design options are considered simultaneously, compared to
sequentially with approach 2.
– Complex interactions and trade-offs in the plant are considered
automatically
– Consequently, the design process can be automated and, once set up, can
produce designs quickly and efficiently
• Disadvantages
– It can’t reach the best solution if the optimal structure is not embedded
somewhere in the superstructure
– Mixed discrete/continuous optimisations can be large and difficult problems
to solve
– Most serious problem – the design team is removed from the decision
making process; building up process understanding is lost; and it is difficult to
include factors such as safety and layout in the formulation of the
optimisation problem
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Product and process design procedure
Steps in chemical process design (or retrofitting)
– Create and assess the primitive problem
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Product design
What chemical composition and physical structure
produces the desired set of product attributes?
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Tools used to aid process synthesis
• Heuristics
• Algorithmic methods
• Process simulation
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1. Heuristics (rules of thumb)
Many are available in SSL, Ch6
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2. Algorithmic methods
• Algorithm: a set of unambiguous instructions (a procedure)
for solving a problem
• Used after a synthesis tree has been created, while developing
base case designs
• Examples where algorithmic methods are used:
– Reactor network synthesis
– Separation train synthesis
– Reactor – separator – recycle network synthesis
– Heat exchanger network synthesis
– Mass exchanger network synthesis
– Optimal design and scheduling of batch processes
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3. Process simulation
• Process simulators, such as HYSYS and Aspen Plus, have
many facilities:
– Property prediction
– Simulation
– Sensitivity analysis
– Optimisation
– Data fitting
– Plotting and report generation
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Steps of activities in Process integration
Process integration involves the following activities:
1. Task Identification:
2. Targeting:
3. Selection of Alternative(s) (Synthesis):
4. Analysis of Selected Alternative(s):
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What is “Process intensification”
This definition can be usefully interpreted as being a process development
involving dramatically smaller equipment which leads to:
1. Improved control of reactor kinetics giving higher selectivity/reduced
waste products.
2. Higher energy efficiency.
3. Reduced capital costs.
4. Reduced inventory/improved intrinsic safety/fast response times.
‘Intensification’ is commonly associated with the increases in productivity of
any chemical engineering development that leads to a substantially smaller,
cleaner, safer and more energy efficient technology is process
intensification ’. D. Reay, C. Ramshaw, A. Harvey, 2013.
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Lecture summary
• Process synthesis and design is about transforming feedstock into products
in a safe, environmentally responsible and economical manner
• PS&D suffers from combinatorial complexity (w=2n(n-1)/2, plus an infinite
choice of operating conditions)
• We need tools to help overcome this problem, e.g. a well-developed
process synthesis and design procedure, heuristics, algorithmic methods, a
reliable process simulator, optimisation techniques, …
• Three approaches to synthesis are: modify something already available,
build up the flowsheet using some vision of a process hierarchy (‘reactors
are the heart of the process’, …), or create and optimise a superstructure
• Explanation on process integration and general activities involved in
process integration.
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References
• Douglas: JM Douglas (1985) “A hierarchical decision procedure for process
synthesis”, AIChE Journal 31(3):353-362
• Smith: R Smith (2005) Chemical Process Design and Integration, John Wiley &
Sons, Chichester, England
• SSL2: WD Seider, JD Seader and DR Lewin (2004) Product & Process Design
Principles, 2ed, John Wiley & Sons, New York
• Dimian, Alexandre C., Costin Sorin Bildea, and Anton A. Kiss. Integrated design
and simulation of chemical processes. Elsevier, 2014.
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