Improving the Economic Efficiency of Heat Pump Integration into Distillation Columns of Process Plants Applying Different Pressures of Evaporators and Condensers

Stanislav Boldyryev (), Mariia Ilchenko and Goran Krajačić
Additional contact information
Stanislav Boldyryev: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, The University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Mariia Ilchenko: Department of Integrated Technologies, Processes and Apparatuses, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, 61000 Kharkiv, Ukraine
Goran Krajačić: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, The University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-31

Abstract: The electrification of process industries is one of the main challenges when building a low-carbon society since they consume huge amounts of fossil fuels, generating different emissions. Heat pumps are some of the key players in the industrial sector of the carbon-neutral market. This study proposes an approach to improve the economic feasibility of heat pumps within process plants. Initial energy targeting with grand composite curves was used and supplemented with the detailed design of an evaporator and a compressor for different condensation and evaporation pressures. The trade-off between the capital cost of the heat pump and the electricity cost was investigated, and optimal configurations were selected. This case study investigates the gas fractioning unit of a polymer plant, where three heat pumps are integrated into distillation columns. The results demonstrate that the heat recovery is 174 MW and requires an additional 37.9 MW of electricity to reduce the hot utility by 212 MW. The selection of the evaporation and condensation pressures of heat pumps allows 21.5 M EUR/y to be saved for 7 years of plant operation. The emission-saving potential is estimated at 1.89 ktCO 2 /y.

Keywords: process integration; heat pump; heat exchangers; industry electrification; energy saving; emission reduction; economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/951/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/951/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:951-:d:1340987

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().