A Total Site Heat Integration design method for integrated evaporation systems including vapour recompression

This paper presents a new Total Site Heat Integration (TSHI) method for the design of integrated evaporation systems including vapour recompression that minimises energy use and/or cost objective functions. The design of integrated evaporation systems is a common industrial chemical and process engineering problem. The method defines a new hybrid Total Site Profile (TSP) as a key element of the new design method. This profile is a composite of nearby streams that may directly integrate with the evaporation system as well as stream segments from processes that require indirect integration via the utility system. The hybrid TSP plays an important role in the iterative optimisation of evaporation system design parameters including vapour recompression and evaporation load distribution to optimise objective functions such as total cost, total operating cost, and heat recovery. The new TSHI design method for evaporation systems is demonstrated using an industrial milk processing case study.