Pinch design method in the case of a limited number of process streams

The use of Pinch technology is very often strongly limited by the existence of complex chemical process units (combustion, drying, scrubbing, etc.) in the energy system of the plant. Since this methodology, in its standard form, does not account for chemical operation inside those units, only a few process streams can be used for the creation of the heat exchanger network. The final design, in accordance with the overall mass and energy balance of the plant, will generate only slight increase in the energy efficiency.To exceed these limitations, the plant can be reconfigured by adding the modules of virtual heat exchangers in existing physical and mathematical models of the plant. These exchangers present just fictive elements, which simulate possible heating/cooling of the streams, and their purpose is only to ensure the conservancy of balance equations. In this way, the new task enables the use of more streams in the pinch design, which can result in the solution with significant improvement of plant energy performance.