A systematic approach for synthesizing combined mass and heat exchange networks

Mass and heat are very important resources in the process industry. Numerous approaches have been proposed for the optimization of either mass or heat exchange networks. Since the process usage of mass and heat is typically intertwined, it is important to account for such interactions. The objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic method for the simultaneous synthesis of combined mass- and heat-exchange networks (CMAHENs). The proposed method is based on a novel approach that incorporates the mass pinch technology (MPT) for mass exchange networks (MENs) synthesis and the pseudo-T-H diagram approach (PTHDA) for the heat exchange networks (HENs) synthesis. New bypass streams are included in the structural representation of the problem to expand the search space. A combined optimization approach is applied to minimize the total annualized cost of the CMAHEN. Finally, two cases are solved to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

► A simultaneous method for synthesizing heat and mass exchanger networks is proposed. ► The synthesis method is based on the mass pinch technology and the pseudo-T-H diagram approach. ► A bypass stream is introduced to improve the results. ► The optimization approach is based on a combined genetic algorithm and simulated annealing. ► Competitive results are obtained through the use of the proposed approach.