Optimal heat pump integration in industrial processes

Benchmarking is completed by applying the method on a set of literature cases which yields improved-cost solutions between 5% and 30% compared to those reported previously. An extended version of one case is presented considering fluid selection, heat exchanger network (HEN) cost estimations, and technical constraints. The extended case highlights a trade-off between energy efficiency and system complexity expressed in number of compression stages, gas- and sub-cooling. This is especially evident when comparing the solutions with 3 and 5 compression stages causing an increase of the COP from 2.9 to 3.1 at 3% increase in total annualized costs (TAC).