This paper introduces a new disjunctive formulation for the simultaneous optimization and heat integration of systems with variable inlet and outlet temperatures in process streams as well as the possibility of selecting and using different utilities. The starting point is the original compact formulation of the Pinch Location Method, however, instead of approximating the “maximum” operator with smooth, but non-convex functions, these operators are modeled by means of a disjunction. The new formulation has shown to have equal or lower relaxation gap than the best alternative reformulation, thus reducing computational time and numerical problems related to non-convex approximations.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness from Spain, under the projects CTQ2012-37039-C02-02, CTQ2016-77968-C3-2-P, and Call 2013 National Sub-Program for Training, Grants for pre-doctoral contracts for doctoral training (BES-2013-064791)
