A formulated method for streams splitting in heat exchanger network design using pinch analysis

Abstract Thermal processes constitute a significant portion of energy consumption in the industrial sector. In this context, pinch analysis has emerged as a powerful method for achieving substantial energy savings. By systematically analyzing process streams and their heat transfer characteristics, pinch analysis enables the identification of heat recovery opportunities, leading to the design of an optimized heat exchanger network that minimizes energy requirements. In this study, a formulated stream splitting method is proposed to design a feasible minimum energy requirement heat exchanger network. This method aims to achieve two main goals. First, it gives a practical formulated method to help the designer when splitting streams and focuses on splitting the streams in such a way that creates sub-streams with the exact enthalpy required to satisfy heat exchanges with a specific number of streams, in order to minimize the need for process-utility heat exchangers whenever possible. Subsequently, the method aims to eliminate exergy destruction caused by temperature differences in the mixer used to recombine the split streams, by ensuring an isothermal mixture of streams, preventing unnecessary energy losses. The design of the heat exchanger network is conducted using the hint software, allowing for a comprehensive and detailed analysis of each step. The results obtained show that the heat exchanger network attained not only achieves the minimum energy consumption but also mitigates exergy destruction and avoids unnecessary process-utility heat exchangers, resulting in enhanced overall system performance.