Heat integration in a speciality product process

The essence of effective process designing is to use methods which are efficient to engineers in practice and not only to scientists. The proposed design procedure is composed of two steps: conceptual one and optimization one. At the conceptual step, pinch design analysis is used. In the optimization step pinch analysis and mixed-integer nonlinear programming method are applied. In the case study analysed, a speciality product is to be produced in continuous chemical process with a capacity which causes smaller heat flow rates and needs smaller heat exchanger areas than usual. Therefore, an equation for cost estimation of heat exchangers with areas smaller than 7 m2 was developed and used in the optimization procedure. Using thermodynamic pinch analysis and mathematical programming method, the heat integrated structures were synthesized and compared with the base process flowsheet. Finally, the optimal structure was determined.