Pinch technology: an efficient tool for chemical-plant energy and capital-cost saving

Through its 20 year history, pinch analysis has proved to be a simple conce pt in a field known for complex mathematical methods. Reports of industrial applications claim design improvements in energy saving, as well as reduce d capital investment costs, due to optimising the number of heat exchangers required for the same heat duty, after pinch technology was introduced. So me of the recent pinch developments are: pressure drop optimisation, distil lation column profiles, low temperature process design, batch process integ ration, water and waste water minimisation and emissions targeting. This pa per attempts to describe this technology, considering both new designs or m odifications applied to chemical process plants. (C) 1999 Published by Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.