Jlb. Vanreisen et al., THE PLACEMENT OF 2-STREAM AND MULTI-STREAM HEAT-EXCHANGERS IN AN EXISTING NETWORK THROUGH PATH-ANALYSIS, Computers & chemical engineering, 19, 1995, pp. 143-148
A prescreening and decomposition method is presented to analyse heal e
xchanger networks for retrofitting. The method, called Path Analysis,
selects and analyses fractions from the existing network, either by he
uristics or by an algorithm. By comparison of all fractions, the criti
cal parts of the network that should be adapted can be identified. The
adaptations can be done:independent of the remaining network. Thus Pa
th Analysis enables a considerable reduction of the effort in retrofit
design. Meanwhile the simplest network adaptations are favoured. Path
Analysis is applied to several cases. The results for an aromatics ca
se are presented. Using the right software tools, the engineering effo
rt can be reduced considerably, compared with existing methods. Soluti
ons tend to be less complex, while the profitability is sometimes high
er than was expected from global analysis. With Path Analysis the retr
ofit design using new multi-stream heat exchangers proved to be straig
htforward.