Carbon emission reduction targeting through process integration and fuel switching with mathematical modeling

Carbon emission reduction targeting is an important and effective effort for industry to contribute in controlling greenhouse gases concentration in atmosphere. Graphical approach has been proposed for CO2 emissions reduction targeting via HEN retrofit and fuel switching. However, it involves potentially time consuming manual procedures and the quality of solutions produced greatly depends on designer’s experience and judgment. Besides, graphical approach hardly account for the cost factor during the design phase, thus potentially generate complex design. This paper introduces an MINLP model for simultaneous CO2 emissions reduction targeting via fuel switching and HEN retrofit. A sequential model execution was proposed along with the proposed model. The application of the model on a crude preheat train case study has demonstrated its workability to generate optimal solution for targeted CO2 emissions reduction at minimum payback period.

► CO2 emissions reduction targeting for existing plant were categorized into three groups.
► Model for CO2 emissions reduction targeting via combination approach was developed.
► Effect of combination approach onto HEN area efficiency was discussed.
► Proposed execution strategy can avoid HEN area efficiency deterioration.