Pinch Retrofits Provide Cost-Effective Plant Uprating Potential

Abstract

In today's economic environment, the need for increased production rivals the desire for energy efficiency for plant operators in many sectors of the process industries. This, in turn, places additional demands on the retrofit studies that are being carried out. Engineers must devise cost effective ways to accomplish multiple process improvement objectives. These include debottlenecking, plant expansion, improved operating flexibility, operating cost reduction and more. Pinch Technology has become recognized and accepted as the preferred methodology for understanding heat and power issues in industrial processes. This approach provides a fundamentally correct way to quantify the optimum amount of heat recovery and to identify the preferred types and amounts of all hot and cold plant utilities. It also provides a systematic way to design the process heat exchange network and the plant utility system. The use of Pinch Technology to achieve the dual objectives of improved energy efficiency and increased plant capacity is described in this paper. Results obtained in recent ethylene plant studies are used to illustrate how these concepts are applied and the benefits that can be achieved.