Heat exchanger networks:

Pre heat train fouling costs around 1 billion and 2 million$ in the year in USA. The

usage of non-reusable fuel tends to reduction of CO2 emissions.

The fouling in the tubes of the heat exchanger tubes is mostly common happen due to

the presence of the asphaltenes content found in the crude oil. As well the traces of heavy

metals, paraffin and aromatic (Iron sulphides) they causes a large effect precipitation

rates. The dissolved oxygen also causes some effect on fouling.

The industry of refinery is sort of intensive energy industry the most of energy that is

consumed happens in heating and cooling the supplies. Retrofitting a revamping of plants

that is related to chemical engineering is a chance for improving the design of the

existing heat exchanger networks.

The crude oil goes into many units in order to reach final product such as; gasoline,

kerosene, diesel, and naphtha and some other products. For the first step it goes into an

atmospheric distillation tower at a very high temperature it may reaches 400°C. (Akpa

JG, 2012)

The crude oil firstly is heated by a pre heat train before entering the furnace. To

decrease the energy that was consumed in the furnace and decrease the total consumed

energy at the refinery, therefore it is a must to maximize the temperature of the crude

oil before it reaches the furnace and that happens by increasing and improving the

efficiency of the heat exchanger network (HEN), this is the process where many heat

exchangers are linked together forming the network for heat transfer. To reach the
maximum and best usage of the network and make sure to have the best efficiency of

the hot and cold stream some heat integration methods are applied that leads to a good

reduction in the energy needed and cost of the whole process. (Asante NDK, 1977)

Figure 1 Linked heat exchanger (HEN)

Process integration is a method made to make the whole process as a one unit and

leads to an interactions between the whole units of the process better than optimizing

each unit. The integration happens by using the heat that must be cooled from the

streams to heat the other streams and the streams that must be heated to cool the other

streams. It takes place in the pre heat train used in the process of crude oil in refiners to

reduce the energy consume in the furnace.

Figure 2 HEN analysis

A scientist called Hohman invented a graphical technique in order to reach the best

and minimum energy supplies and to design a suitable a suitable heat exchanger

network while other two scientists called Papoulias and Grossmann at year 1983 had a

mathematical theory for the same purpose (Linnhoff B, 1983). Both theories are used

nowadays in order of designing Heat exchanger networks (HEN). (EC, 1971)

Figure 3 HEN graph

 The most widely method used in representing the heat exchanger networks is a

diagram called grid diagrams. These types of diagrams show a simple illustration for

the HEN concerning the inlet and the outlet streams and connections but without

knowing the exact pinch especially in complex networks.

Figure 4 Grid diagram

References
Akpa JG, O. J. (2012). Pinch analysis of heat exchanger networks in the crude distillation unit of
Port-Harcourt refinery. J Emerg Trends Eng Appl Sci (JETEAS), 3(3):475–484.

Asante NDK, Z. X. (1977). An automated and interactive approach for heat exchanger network
retrofit. Trans IChemE, 7(3):275–349.

EC, H. (1971). Optimum networks of heat exchange. USA: Ph.D. thesis, University of Southern
California.

Linnhoff B, H. E. (1983). The pinch design method for heat exchanger networks. Chem Eng Sci,
38(5):745–763.