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Empowering Cleaner Energy Decisions
Energy efficiency measures - Industrial - Heat recovery - Petrochemical

Template assignment

Base Case
  • Steam is vented in a petrochemical plant having high temperature processes
  • Process steam flow is 25,000 kg/h, operating 8,200 h/yr, pressure is 300 psig and temperature is 430°F
  • 100% boiler make-up is preheated to 195°F
  • Natural gas fired boiler seasonal efficiency is 80%
  • Natural gas rate is $10.4/GJ

Proposed case
  • Install new heat exchanger in series with the existing one to preheat the boiler makeup water at higher temperature
    • Makeup is preheated to 235°F (instead of 195°F)
    • Cost of retrofit is $400,000
  • Install new heat exchanger to preheat a process stream using the
    275°F condensate instead of steam
    • Hot stream: water condensate, flow 1.76 L/s, temperature 275°F, operation 8,200 h/yr, density 1,000 kg/m³, heat capacity
      4.18 kJ/kg/°C
    • Cold stream: process stream, flow 4.33 L/s, temperature 150°F, operation 8,200 h/yr, density 700 kg/m³, heat capacity
      2.6 kJ/kg/°C
    • Heat recovery efficiency is 88%
    • Cost of retrofit is $600,000

Base case

Base case
Proposed case

Proposed case
Solution

The worked-out solution is the data file selected from within the RETScreen Project Database. The user automatically downloads the Project Database file while downloading the RETScreen software.