Heat Exchanger Network Design with Considering Physical Properties Variation

In this paper energy targeting for an ammonia plant has already been done with and without stream segmentation. Pinch temperature, ΔT_min, and the values of the hot and cold utilities in both cases are different and so the HEN has to be changed. The results demonstrates that when splitting streams into two or more segments within the existing ammonia plant, pinch point increases by about 3˚C, and hot and cold utilities consumption increases by approximately 23% and 11%, respectively. The area of the heat exchanger network also is increased by about 50%. Finally, an aggregation diagram is introduced for the evaluation of specific heat capacity distribution along the whole streams of the network.