The importance of control considerations for heat exchanger network synthesis: a case study

Cost optimization in the synthesis decision tree often leads to a reduced degree of freedom which degrades the process’s ability to reject disturbances as a consequence of low controllability. In fact, Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) obtained by traditional synthesis procedures that ignore controllability aspects must be evaluated in this context a posteriori. The aim of this work was to develop a procedure that includes RGA and SVD measures of controllability, which are solely based on steady state information, thereby freeing the synthesis procedure of the cumbersome dynamic analysis. When a structure is defined during a traditional HEN synthesis procedure, a degree of freedom analysis is approached as a simulation problem. Next, an optimization is performed, since new variables are usually added to increase the degree of freedom of the HEN in order to render it controllable. A key point in the proposed procedure is the inference of controllability based on the proposed controllability measures, which also provide a control scheme by pairing controlled and manipulated variables during the process design. A HEN reported in the literature is used to illustrate the proposed procedure. The steady state simulator Aspen Plus and the dynamic simulator Aspen Dynamics (Aspentech, Inc.) were employed.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Oliveira,S.G., Liporace,F.S., Araújo,O.Q.F., Queiroz,E.M.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Brazilian Society of Chemical Engineering 2001
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322001000200007
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Summary:Cost optimization in the synthesis decision tree often leads to a reduced degree of freedom which degrades the process’s ability to reject disturbances as a consequence of low controllability. In fact, Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) obtained by traditional synthesis procedures that ignore controllability aspects must be evaluated in this context a posteriori. The aim of this work was to develop a procedure that includes RGA and SVD measures of controllability, which are solely based on steady state information, thereby freeing the synthesis procedure of the cumbersome dynamic analysis. When a structure is defined during a traditional HEN synthesis procedure, a degree of freedom analysis is approached as a simulation problem. Next, an optimization is performed, since new variables are usually added to increase the degree of freedom of the HEN in order to render it controllable. A key point in the proposed procedure is the inference of controllability based on the proposed controllability measures, which also provide a control scheme by pairing controlled and manipulated variables during the process design. A HEN reported in the literature is used to illustrate the proposed procedure. The steady state simulator Aspen Plus and the dynamic simulator Aspen Dynamics (Aspentech, Inc.) were employed.