Advances in optimal design and retrofit of chemical processes with uncertain parameters - Applications in design of heat exchanger networks

There is widespread consensus that the omnipresent climate crisis demands humanity to rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.To allow for such a rapid reduction, the industrial sector as a main contributor to GHG emissions needs to take immediate actions. To mitigate GHG emissions from the industrial sector, increasing energy efficiency as well as fuel and feedstock switching, such as increased use of biomass and (green) electricity, are the options which can have most impact in the short- and medium-term.Such mitigation options usually create a need for design of new or redesign of existing processes such as the plant energy systems.The design and operation of industrial plants and processes are usually subject to uncertainty, especially in the process industry. This uncertainty can have different origins, e.g., process parameters such as flow rates or transfer coefficients may vary (uncontrolled) or may not be known exactly.This thesis proposes theoretical and methodological developments for designing and/or redesigning chemical processes which are subject to uncertain operating conditions, with a special focus on heat recovery systems such as heat exchanger networks.In this context, this thesis contributes with theoretical development in the field of deterministic flexibility analysis.More specifically, new approaches are presented to enhance the modelling of the expected uncertainty space, i.e., the space in which the uncertain parameters are expected to vary.Additionally, an approach is presented to perform (deterministic) flexibility analysis in situations when uncertain long-term development such as a switch in feedstocks interferes with operational short-term disturbances.In this context, the thesis presents an industrial case study to i) show the need for such a theoretical development, and ii) illustrate the applicability.Aside of advances in deterministic flexibility analysis, this thesis also explores the possibility to combine valuable designer input (e.g. non-quantifiable knowledge) with the efficiency of mathematical programming when addressing a design under uncertainty problem.More specifically, this thesis proposes to divide the design under uncertainty problem into a design synthesis step which allows direct input from the designer, and several subsequent steps which are summarized in a framework presented in this thesis.The proposed framework combines different approaches from the literature with the theoretical development presented in this thesis, and aims to identify the optimal design specifications which also guarantee that the the final design can operate at all expected operating conditions.The design synthesis step and the framework are decoupled from each other which allows the approach to be applied to large and complex industrial case studies with acceptable computational effort.Usage of the proposed framework is illustrated by means of an industrial case study which presents a design under uncertainty problem

New Elements of Heat Transfer Efficiency Improvement in Systems and Units

Zvýšení efektivity výměny tepla vede k poklesu spotřeby energie, což se následně projeví sníženými provozními náklady, poklesem produkce emisí a potažmo také snížením dopadu na životní prostředí. Běžné způsoby zefektivňování přenosu tepla jako např. přidání žeber či vestaveb do trubek ovšem nemusí být vždy vhodné nebo proveditelné -- zvláště při rekuperaci tepla z proudů s vysokou zanášivostí. Jelikož intenzita přestupu tepla závisí i na charakteru proudění, distribuci toku a zanášení, které lze všechny výrazně ovlivnit tvarem jednotlivých součástí distribučního systému, bylo sestaveno několik zjednodušených modelů pro rychlou a dostatečně přesnou predikci distribuce a také aplikace pro tvarovou optimalizaci distribučních systémů využívající právě tyto modely. Přesnost jednoho z modelů byla dále zvýšena pomocí dat získaných analýzou 282 distribučních systémů v softwaru ANSYS FLUENT. Vytvořené aplikace pak lze využít během návrhu zařízení na výměnu tepla ke zvýšení jejich výkonu a spolehlivosti.Improved heat transfer efficiency leads to decrease in energy consumption which then results in lower equipment operational cost, reduced emissions, and consequently also lower environmental impact. However, common enhancement approaches such as adding fins or tube inserts may not always be suitable or feasible -- especially in case of heat recovery from streams having a high fouling propensity. Since heat transfer rate depends also on flow field characteristics, fluid distribution, and fouling which can all be greatly influenced by the actual shapes of flow system components, several simplified models for fast and accurate enough prediction of fluid distribution as well as applications for shape optimization based on these models were developed. In addition, accuracy of one of the models was further increased by fine-tuning it using data obtained by evaluation of 282 flow systems in the fluid flow modelling software ANSYS FLUENT. The created applications can then be employed during the design of heat exchange units to improve their performance and reliability.

A pinch-based method for defining pressure manipulation routes in work and heat exchange networks

Aiming for more energetically efficient and sustainable solutions, academic attention to work and heat integration (WHI) has grown in the last decade. Simultaneous models for work and heat exchanger network (WHEN) synthesis often derive from heat integration (HI) frameworks. However, it can be noted that simultaneous optimization models for WHI are considerably more complex to solve than in the HI case. The design of efficient pressure manipulation routes (i.e., allocation and sizing of compression and expansion machinery) in process streams prior to heat exchange match allocation can make the optimization procedure more efficient. This work proposes a systematic procedure based on a model that employs Pinch Analysis concepts for defining these routes based on capital and operating cost targets. The solution approach is a hybrid meta-heuristic method based on Simulated Annealing (SA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The obtained routes are then converted into a HI problem by fixing pressure manipulation unit sizes. The detailed HI solution is finally transferred into a WHI optimization model as initial design. In the two tackled examples, the total annual costs (TAC) predicted by the Pinch-based model differed by 0.5% and 1.2% from the final optimized WHEN obtained in the detailed WHI framework.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – Processes 88887.360812/2019–00 and 88881.171419/2018–01 – CAPES (Brazil) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – Processes 305055/2017–8, 428650/2018–0 and 311807/2018–6 – CNPq (Brazil)

Novel Approaches for Retrofitting Heat Exchanger Networks Subject to Varying Operating Conditions

The process industry is responsible for a significant share of the final industrial energy use in Sweden. In particular, the pulp and paper industry accounts for more than 50 %. In this context, a number of studies have shown that there is a substantial potential for energy savings in the pulp and paper industry. In particular, increased heat recovery is an important measure for increasing energy efficiency. Industrial process plants usually include heat recovery systems that are built to transfer heat between different process streams. Such heat recovery systems consist of Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) which can be characterized by a high degree of complexity, e.g. through stream splits, recycle and closed circulation loops.Increasing heat recovery, e.g. by redesigning (retrofitting) the existing heat recovery system, can contribute significantly to meeting energy efficiency improvement targets for industrial process plants. One issue to consider when screening retrofit design options is that industrial heat recovery systems must be able to handle external variations, e.g. in inlet temperatures or heat capacity flow rates, in such a way that operational targets are reached. Consequently, there is a need for systematic retrofitting methodologies applicable to HENs subject to variation in operating conditions. The aim of this thesis is to propose new approaches for retrofitting HENs operating in multiple periods.Three different approaches have been developed and published in three papers appended to this thesis which allow for retrofitting HENs operating in multiple periods. These approaches can be applied independently and are applicable to HENs commonly present in process industry, e.g. pulp and paper industry. All approaches have in common that they require structural retrofit design proposals as input. For the structural proposal generation, graphical approaches (e.g. Pinch-based) may be utilized in order to take advantage of the designer interaction during the design process. The three approaches propose different strategies to evaluate and ensure feasibility of the design proposals when operating conditions vary, e.g. by means of design modifications. In this context, feasibility is achieved if predefined target values, e.g. stream target temperatures, can be reached for the entire span of variations. Furthermore, different strategies help the designer to identify the most promising proposal (or proposals) among the provided ones with respect to a defined objective, e.g. most energy-efficient or most cost-efficient

Synthesis of optimal heat and mass exchange networks using a two-step hybrid approach including detailed unit designs

This PhD thesis develops a methodology for the synthesis of optimal heat and mass exchanger networks through a novel hybrid method. The two-step procedure makes use of simplified exchanger models in a network optimisation step, followed by a detailed design where the exchangers found in the network synthesis step are modelled in detail. Subsequent iterations of the network design step are then updated with information from the detailed network designs. The algorithm has certain advantages over previous methods in that the network optimisation is based on more realistic representations of the actual units therein and also that the method increases the likelihood of attaining a globally optimal solution through the generation and assessment of multiple candidate networks throughout the algorithm. The method can be used in a variety of applications and is demonstrated to be effective for large problems and multi-period scenarios. The thesis also shows that the method can be used in conjunction with multiple individual unit optimisation techniques including heuristics and fully explicit optimisation methods