Bypass Selection for Control of Heat Exchanger Network

Considering the flexibility and controllability of heat exchanger networks (HENs), bypasses are widely used for effective control of process stream target temperatures. However, the optimal location for the bypass is generally difficult to design with the trade-off between controllability and capital investments. In this paper, based on the steady-state model of heat exchanger networks the optimal bypass location was firstly selected by iteratively calculating the non-square Relative Gain Array (ns-RGA). To simplify the calculation process, rules of bypass selection were also proposed. In order to evaluate this method, then, the structural controllability of heat exchanger networks was analyzed. With both the consideration of the controllability and capital investments, the bypasses locations were finally selected. A case study on the HEN in Crude Distillation Unit was presented in which the ns-RGA and structural controllability were used to select bypasses and also to evaluate the results.