Purification processes are widely used in hydrogen networks of refineries to increase hydrogen reuse. In refineries, hydrogen purification techniques include hydrocarbon, hydrogen sulfide and CO removal units. In addition, light hydrocarbon recovery from the hydrogen source streams can also result in hydrogen purification. In order to simplify the superstructure and mathematical model of hydrogen network integration, the models of different purification processes are unified in this paper, including mass balance and the expressions for hydrogen recovery and impurity removal ratios, which are given for all the purification units in refineries. Based on the proposed unified model, a superstructure of hydrogen networks with purification processes is constructed.
In the hydrogen network with the minimum hydrogen utility flow rate,the pinch appears at the point with zero hydrogen surplus,while the hydrogen surpluses of all the other points are positive.In the hydrogen purity profiles,the pinch can only lie at the sink-tie-line intersecting the source purity profile.According to the alternative distribution of the negative and positive regions,the effect of the purification to the hydrogen surplus is analyzed.The results show that when the purification is applied,the pinch point will appear neither above the purification feed nor between the initial pinch point and the purification feed,no matter the purification feed lies above or below the initial pinch point.This is validated by two case studies.
Work exchange is a promising innovative technology in recovering residual pressure energy. However, at the systematic level, the comprehensive utilization of different energy resources in an energy system has become an issue of concern. In this work, a systematic approach is proposed, one that successively integrates heat, work and adjusts operation parameters. A detailed procedure for building a heat-work coupling transfer network is provided. The synthesis mainly consists of constructing a work exchange sub-network with pinch analysis based on positive displacement type work exchangers. Simultaneously, another kind of sub-network based on turbine-type work exchangers is built as a schematic comparison. The influence of applying a positive displacement work exchanger on the system is investigated. Finally, as a case study, a renovation design of a typical rectisol process in the coal-water slurry gasification section of an ammonia plant is presented. The results show that the added work exchanger has little impact on the existing heat exchange sub-network. Moreover,extra pressure energy is recovered by coupling the transfer network. It is concluded that the heat-work systematic design is a promising and powerful method to use energy more efficiently.
