%0 Journal Article
%T Debottlenecking and Retrofitting by Pinch Analysis in a Chemical Plant
%J -
%D 2017
%X Energy saving, global warming and greenhouse gas emissions have become major technological, social and political issues. Being closely related to energy supply, they are of a strategic significance. Today, especially energy-sensitive industries such as refining and petrochemical are targeting to recover maximum amount of energy by applying Process Integration (PI) that deals with the energy efficiency, waste minimization and effective use of raw materials. Pinch Analysis is a structured approach and a systematic tool of PI. The prime objective of Pinch Analysis is to achieve financial savings by better process heat integration and reduce the externally provided energy requirements by recovering the maximum amount of energy within the system. It is also employed to improve effluent quality, reduce emissions, increase product yield and improve the flexibility and safety of the process. Properly calculated pinch targets have economic implications such as reduction of operating cost and capital investment. This study deals with energy saving strategies in a real VCM (Vinyl-Chloride-Monomer) plant by applying pinch method. The prime objective of this work is to achieve financial savings by better process heat integration (maximizing process-to-process heat recovery and reducing the external utility loads). It examines the existing process and introduces two alternative retrofit cases. Targets for heat recovery and utilities have been calculated (taking ¦¤T min=10¡ãC). Existing process and alternative cases have been compared. According to Retrofit 1, energy recovery reaches up to 12.51% whereas utility reduction is 57.24%. Retrofit 2 states that the recovered energy is 10.45% while the utility reduction is 47.83%. The results obtained indicate that there is a remarkable improvement in energy recovery and utility saving.
%K Process Integration
%K Pinch Analysis
%K Heat Recovery
%K Energy Saving
%U http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=168&doi=10.11648/j.ajee.20170505.13