Integration of Re-Boilers

The approaches currently used by process integration specialists to assess the opportunities for the integration of re-boilers are frequently erroneous and lead to proposals that have to be rejected at the detailed engineering stages (or worse, to re-boilers that do not perform properly).

 This paper examines the integration of both vertical and horizontal thermo-siphon reboilers.

 It covers the following topics:

   1. how should the heat load-temperature characteristics be incorporated into a “pinch analysis”

   2.  how should the hot stream be matched with the re-boiler duty

   3. what is the minimum temperature difference for the re-boiler

   4.  what is the maximum temperature difference for the re-boiler

   5.  how does distillation column control affect the integration

   6. when should indirect integration be employed