Abstract
Work and Heat Exchange Network (WHEN) design has been an emerging topic in the area of Process Synthesis
and has attracted increasing research interest in the past few years. Not only temperature changes but also
pressure changes of process streams have been taken into consideration in WHEN design. As a result, pressure
changing equipment such as compressors, expanders, pumps, valves, etc., as well as traditional heat exchange
equipment is included in WHEN design. Similar to HEN design problems, both graphical and mathematical
optimization approaches have been under development for WHEN design. The graphical approaches utilize
fundamental thermodynamic insight while mathematical optimization approaches enable dealing with large size
problems. This paper focuses on a comparison between the graphical and mathematical optimization
approaches for WHEN design. A case study is used to illustrate the importance of thermodynamic insight in
WHEN design even in the case of using mathematical optimization approaches.
and has attracted increasing research interest in the past few years. Not only temperature changes but also
pressure changes of process streams have been taken into consideration in WHEN design. As a result, pressure
changing equipment such as compressors, expanders, pumps, valves, etc., as well as traditional heat exchange
equipment is included in WHEN design. Similar to HEN design problems, both graphical and mathematical
optimization approaches have been under development for WHEN design. The graphical approaches utilize
fundamental thermodynamic insight while mathematical optimization approaches enable dealing with large size
problems. This paper focuses on a comparison between the graphical and mathematical optimization
approaches for WHEN design. A case study is used to illustrate the importance of thermodynamic insight in
WHEN design even in the case of using mathematical optimization approaches.