Above Pinch

In order to calculate the number of heat exchangers and utilities required in this
distillation column design, the following parameters were required (as shown in
the table below):
molar heat flow capacities of each stream, starting
temperature of each stream, target temperature of each stream, change in
temperature and absolute values of heat required by the system.
CP was obtained, as mentioned previously using the equation

CP=mC
p

where

is the molar flow rate of the specific stream. The starting and target

temperatures of the six streams are the initial temperatures which are then
required to be heated or cooled to their respective temperatures, which also
determines whether or not a stream is hot or cool. Streams 1o and 1b
denoted this way to represent 1 octane and 1 benzene are the cool streams in
this case and the remaining streams are therefore hot. Delta T is calculated by
subtracting the starting temperatures from the target temperatures. However,
the Ts value for both of the cold streams is the cold pinch temperatures
previously calculated.
The first step in approaching this task is to identify the criteria in place for above
the pinch, which is given as:

CP h CP c
This denotes that the hot pinch molar flow heat capacity must be greater than or
equal to the molar flow heat capacity of the cold pinch.
Stream
1b
9b
6b
1o
9o
6o

CP
[kW/C]
5.3520152
79
3.1566322
25
2.1615117
66
7.8034643
88
3.5858662
74
4.1618423
17

Figure ??: molar heat capacities of the streams of interest

Using this criterion, the cold streams were all paired off with the hot streams as
they all satisfied the above condition. This resulted in eight different possible
stream pairings however, only one is possible. In order to narrow these pairings
down, the amount of heat transferred was calculated, and the one with the

maximum heat transfer was the pairing that was eventually chosen. The Q value
for each stream in a pairing was compared against one another and the smallest
absolute value from the two was the amount of heat transferred across.

Stream
1b
9b
6b
1o
9o
6o

Q [kW]
38.53451001
0
-69.1683765
-542.340775
279.1596894
207.0100368

Figure ??: heat transferred in each stream

Pairing
(9b, 1b)
(6b, 1b)
(9o,1b)
(6o,1b)
(9b,1o)
(6b, 1o)
(9o,1o)
(6o,1o)

Qlargest
[kW]
0
38.534510
01
38.534510
01
38.534510
01
0
69.168376
5
279.15968
94
207.01003
68

Figure ??: maximum amount of heat transferred between stream pairings

After classifying the smallest absolute Q value, and tabulating them for
comparison, it can be seen that the greatest amount of heat transfer occurs by
pairing streams 9 octane and 1 octane and gives approximately 279 kW of
energy.
For the first heat exchanger, HEX1, all the stream heat values were kept the
same as before with the exception of streams 9 octane and 1 octane. Here, the
previously obtained value of 279 kW was subtracted from the original Q value of
stream 1 octane which was approximately 542 kW. 542 279 = 263 kW and 279
279 0 kW.

Stream
1b
9b
6b
1o
9o
6o

Q (abs)
[kW]
38.53451
001
0
69.16837
65
542.3407
75
279.1596
894
207.0100
368

HEX1 [kW]
38.53451001
0
69.1683765
263.1810856
0
207.0100368

Figure ??: absolute values of heat transferred and energy needed by the first
heat exchanger
For the second heat exchanger, the pairings are then reviewed once again to
obtain the next highest value for heat transferred. In this case, it is streams 6
octane and 1 octane, where the amount of heat transferred is 207 kW. A new
column labelled HEX2 was then created where all the streams once again
remained the same apart from 1 octane and 6 octane for which the HEX1 values
were subtracted from the Q absolute values as shown in the table below.
Stream
1b
9b
6b
1o
9o
6o

Q (abs)
[kW]
38.53451
001
0
69.16837
65
542.3407
75
279.1596
894
207.0100
368

263.1810856

HEX2
[kW]
38.534
51
0
69.168
38
56.171
05

207.0100368

HEX1 [kW]
38.53451001
0
69.1683765

Figure ??: table with energy required by two heat exchangers

For HEX3, the next highest pairing (6 benzene, 1 octane) could not be used as
when this value of 69 kW is subtracted from the absolute value of Q, a negative
answer arises and therefore this is thermodynamically impossible. 56 69 = -13
kW. Consequentially, the next value of Q was taken which was for pairing 6
benzene and 1 benzene. In the same procedure as followed before, values for
HEX3 are calculated.
Stream
1b
9b

Q (abs)
38.53451
001
0

HEX1
38.53451001
0

HEX2
38.534
51
0

HEX3

H1

0
0

0
0

69.16837
65
542.3407
75
279.1596
894
207.0100
368

6b
1o
9o
6o

263.1810856

69.168
38
56.171
05

30.6338664
9
56.1710487
4

207.0100368

69.1683765

0
0

Figure ??: table with energy required by three heat exchangers

After this, the lowest amount of heat transferred between streams is reached and
this value is zero. Therefore, the two heat values that remain are summed
together and this is the minimum amount of energy that must be supplied for
maximum energy recovery. 31 + 56 = 87 kW.
This value of 87 kW matches the value of minimum heat required which was
calculated via the difference between the summation of the heat supplied to the
cold streams and heat supplied by the hot streams.
QH [kW]
417.0013497
QC [kW]
503.806265
Figure ??: Sums of
heats of hot and cold
QC
QH
streams
[kW]
86.80491523
Therefore, there are three heat exchangers and one heater which is being
supplied 87 kW in this network.
Calculations for below the pinch are not possible as none of the values for CP
(molar flow heat capacity) satisfy the criteria where

CP h CP c
Minimum number of heat exchangers required
To calculate the minimum number of heat exchangers required in this design, the
following equation for simple networks can be implemented:

Z min =N ' 1
Where Zmin is he minimum number of exchangers including heaters and coolers
needed;
N is the number of streams including the utilities.
N in this case is 7 therefore Zmin is effectively 6.