ABSTRACT
Heat exchanger network (H.E.N) is a key aspect of chemical process design and
about 30% energy saving coupled with capital saving can be realized by improving
the H.E.N design. The objectives of this work are: i) to study the flexibility of
H.E.Ns under the simultaneous variations of temperature, heat capacity flow rates
and the product of the overall heat transfer coefficient and the area of the heat
exchanger. ii) to highlight the dangers and the opportunities for developing a
practically applicable technique. Also, a modified method for the flexibility study of
H.E.Ns was developed from the combination of two systematic computational
methods (sensitivity analysis and heat load shift method). In this method the passive
response of the network to the deviations in feed temperature, flow rate, heat
transfer coefficient was evaluated by using the sensitivity analysis method while the
possible design changes, which are required to eliminate the unwanted passive
responses, were determined by using the heat load shift method.