Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Heat integration of heat pump assisted distillation into the overall

process
Minbo Yang, Xiao Feng , Guilian Liu
School of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, China

h i g h l i g h t s

Heat integration of heat pumps, distillation columns and background processes.

An approach to identify the placement of a heat pump via pinch technology.

A smaller temperature lift of heat pumping for a distillation column.

The heat integration scenario reduces the energy consumption of the overall process.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Reducing the energy consumption of distillation processes can lead to significant cost savings in refiner-
Received 5 January 2015 ies and the chemical process industry because distillation is a widely used and energy-intensive separa-
Received in revised form 3 October 2015 tion technology. A distillation column can be heat integrated with heat pumps to reduce the energy
Accepted 6 October 2015
supplied by the utility, and it can also be integrated into the overall process to save energy for the overall
Available online 11 November 2015
process. However, previous studies have not adequately investigated the synergistic effect of integrating
heat pump assisted distillation into overall processes. In this paper, a systematic design methodology is
Keywords:
proposed for the simultaneous heat integration of distillation, its background process and heat pump sys-
Pinch analysis
Distillation
tems. Such a holistic heat integration approach can lead to considerable energy savings for the overall
Heat pump process. The proposed methodology also includes systematic identification for the energy-optimum
Grand Composite Curve placement of the heat pump and its matching with process streams. Furthermore, the impacts of
Energy savings distillation process modifications on the holistic heat integration strategy are examined. A case study
is presented to illustrate how the proposed design method is applied and to demonstrate its effectiveness
in saving energy. For the case study, the hot and cold utilities are reduced by 61.5% and 20.6% compared
to energy consumptions for the base case.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction distillation processes is of high demand and has received consider-

The chemical industry consumes vast amounts of energy which
is mainly obtained from burning fossil fuels, e.g., coal, natural gas
and crude oil. This results in unsustainable life cycle impacts on
the environment [1]. In process industries, separation processes
are an essential step to recover or purify the desired products, or
to remove undesired wastes or byproducts. Distillation is a widely
used and energy-intensive separation technology [2,3], as energy
consumption associated with distillation processing accounts for
4060% of the total energy consumption of the chemical industry
[4,5]. Due to the rising cost of energy and the increasingly strict
environmental regulations, reducing the energy consumption of
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 18611446202.
E-mail address: xfeng@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (X. Feng).
able research attention.
In a conventional distillation column, high quality heat is sup-
plied to a bottom reboiler and waste heat is rejected from an over-
head condenser. Many studies have proposed different ways to
reduce the energy consumption of distillation processes. Some
options for improving the energy efficiency of distillation opera-
tions include making changes to the design or operating conditions
of the column, such as preheating the feed [6] and adjusting the
reflux ratio [5,7]. System-wide approaches that utilize energy in
an integrated manner within the distillation process are another
attractive option to improve energy efficiency. For example, the
concept of heat integration may be used to systematically realize
heat recovery of distillation columns by making use of heat sources
and heat sinks available within the distillation process [8].
Such heat integrated design options include thermally-coupled

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.10.044
0306-2619/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
Nomenclature
COP coefficient of performance of heat pump
CP heat capacity flow rate, kW/C
H1 heat flux at temperature T1 on the GCC, kW
H2 heat flux at temperature T2 on the GCC, kW
Hpoc heat flux at the heat pocket, kW
QC total required cold utility of overall process, kW
QC,min minimum cold utility of background process, kW
Qcond heat load of overhead condenser, kW
QH total required hot utility of overall process, kW
QH,min minimum hot utility of background process, kW
Qreb heat load of bottom reboiler, kW
Q1 rejected heat of heat pump, kW
Q2 heat taken in by heat pump, kW
Tcond temperature of overhead condenser, C
TP temperature of the pinch point, C
distillation [9], multiple-effect distillation [10], introduction of side
reboilers and/or side condensers [11] and heat pump assisted dis-
tillation [12].
Among the aforementioned options, considerable attention has
been paid by the academic and industrial communities [1315] to
the benefits of heat pumps for distillation processes as heat pumps
can upgrade heat from a lower temperature level to a higher one.
There are great potentials to reduce the energy consumption of dis-
tillation processes when they are appropriately integrated with
heat pumps. Different schemes have been proposed for upgrading
energy within a distillation column through heat pumps. One
scheme is to use an external heat pump circuit in which a refriger-
ant fluid, different from the mixture in the column, is employed.
This circuit has an evaporator and a condenser, which is coupled
with the condenser and the reboiler of a distillation column,
respectively [5]. Another scheme, known as mechanical vapor
recompression heat pump, compresses the column overhead vapor
stream in the compressor directly and uses it as a heating medium
[16]. The bottom product also can be taken as a heat-exchanging
medium of the heat pump with a bottom flashing arrangement
[14,17]. A thermal vapor recompression heat pump is similar to
the mechanical vapor recompression heat pump, in which the
compressor is replaced by a stream ejector [13]. Also, an absorp-
tion heat pump transfers the heat using absorption pairs and can
also be integrated in distillation processes [18,19].
Although the heat pump schemes described above are operated
with different operating principles and integration concepts, all of
them are applied to recover heat from the overhead condenser for
use by the bottom reboiler. To allow heat exchange between a heat
pump and a distillation column, the temperature lift via the heat
pump should be greater than the temperature difference between
the reboiler and the condenser. However, as an increase in the tem-
perature lift of a heat pump decreases the coefficient of perfor-
mance (COP), which is the ratio of the heat rejected to the
external energy consumed by the heat pump, care must be taken
to avoid excessive temperature lift [20]. In addition, with the aid
of Column Grand Composite Curve [21], it is thermodynamically
feasible to use heat pumps to exchange heat with side streams
from intermediate trays of a distillation column, which requires a
small temperature lift [22] but is rarely applied in practice.
The basic idea of the aforementioned methods is to improve the
internal energy utilization within distillation columns so that the
demand for external energy, namely utility [8], can be reduced.
Besides, a distillation column can also be designed in the context
of the overall process with the aim of utilizing energy from other
Treb temperature of bottom reboiler, C
Tsup supply temperature, C
Ttar target temperature, C
T1 temperature of heat pump condenser, C
T2 temperature of heat pump evaporator, C
DTmin minimum temperature difference for heat exchange, C
W external work, kW
gC Carnot efficiency
Superscripts
1 heat pump 1
2 heat pump 2
real corresponding real value
processing units to reduce the energy consumption of the overall
process. For the sake of simplicity, the overall process without con-
sidering the distillation process is referred to as the background
process in this paper.
In the early 1980s, Linnhoff et al. applied the concept of pinch
analysis and proposed a tool based on Heat Flow Cascade to opti-
mize the allocation of available heat between a distillation process
and its background process [23]. Their research indicates that if the
operating temperatures of both the condenser and the reboiler are
above or below the pinch temperature of the background process,
distillation columns may be heat-integrated with the background
process. If this is not the case (i.e. the distillation process is located
across the pinch point), heat integration between the distillation
column and its background process is not favored. In such situa-
tion, the column operating conditions can be modified so that
the reboiling temperature is below the pinch or the condensing
temperature is above the pinch. Subsequently, Bandyopadhyay
[24] proposed two modifications: through side exchangers and
through feed preheating, for the heat integration of a distillation
column with the background process. Kravanja et al. [25] investi-
gated the heat integration of a biochemical plant with the process
modifications of heat loads and temperature levels. However, mak-
ing process modifications to distillation columns requires careful
consideration when the products are very sensitive to any changes
in the operating conditions.
Moreover, for the purpose of saving energy, heat pumps can
also be heat integrated with the background process. Townsend
and Linnhoff [26] proposed that a heat pump should absorb heat
below the pinch temperature and reject it above, namely the
across-pinch rule. In further research, Wallin et al. [27] adopted
Composite Curves to guide the choice of heat pump types for var-
ious industrial processes and revealed the heat load limits of heat
pump installations. Benstead and Sharman [28] matched heat
pump with the Grand Composite Curve (GCC) of a process using
the mirror image technique, which is relatively simple and clear.
Besides, the shape of the GCC can also suggest which type of heat
pump is most suitable [29]. Yang et al. [30] analyzed the dynamic
changes of pinch temperature and GCC of industrial processes with
heat pumps integrated. However, since both Composite Curve and
GCC are composed of two sets of process streams (i.e. hot and cold
streams), these pinch-based methods did not consider the matches
between process streams and heat pumps, and such work was
mainly done by computer programs [28,31,32].
In summary, three energy-efficient approaches have been
explored so far: heat pump assisted distillation, heat integration
 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
between distillation columns and the background process, and
heat integration between heat pumps and the background process.
However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have systemat-
ically addressed the simultaneous heat integration of heat pumps,
distillation column and its background process. Obviously, the heat
in the background process can be upgraded by heat pumps to
reboil the liquid in the bottom reboiler or the rejected heat from
the condenser can be lifted to heat cold streams in the background
process.
Therefore, the purpose of this work is to present a systematic
methodology for the simultaneous heat integration of distillation,
its background process and heat pumps in a holistic manner. Fol-
lowing previous heat integration approaches, the methodology of
this work is developed based on the pinch conception. Firstly, this
paper presents three scenarios of the heat integration concept rely-
ing on different GCCs. Secondly, the energy-optimum placement of
a heat pump is identified with the minimum temperature lift.
Thirdly, GCC is used as a guide to determine the streams to be
matched with the heat pump. On this basis, the effects of distilla-
tion process modifications on heat integration and their techno-
economic impacts are further investigated. Compared with the
conventional heat pump assisted distillation scheme, the proposed
heat integration concept provides a smaller temperature lift for
heat pumping and reduces considerably utility requirements of
the overall process. Note that the minimum temperature difference
for all the heat exchangers is set as DTmin in this work.
2. Distillation integrated into the overall process with heat
pumps
As presented by Townsend and Linnhoff [23], for a distillation
column that is not located across the pinch point of its background
process, either the reboiler or the condenser of the column can be
integrated with streams in the background process. To be specific,
the reboiler can take in heat from hot streams, reducing the
demanded heat supplied by hot utility; or the condenser can reject
heat to the cold streams, decreasing the demanded hot utility of
the background process. In this case, the possibility of integrating
a heat pump can be examined by the method of Townsend and
Linnhoff [26].
When a distillation process is located across the pinch point,
changing the location of the pinch temperature can be considered
so that the operating temperatures of distillation columns are now
located above or below the new pinch point. Yang et al. [30] ana-
lyzed the dynamic changes of GCC when heat pumps are integrated
with a heat exchanger network. They found that the pinch temper-
ature of a heat exchanger network can be changed by the choice for
the placement of heat pumps. Based on this observation, heat
pumps can be strategically applied to change the pinch temperature
of the background process, which allows better heat integration.
2.1. Scenario 1: Increase in the pinch temperature
For a conventional distillation column, the bottom reboiler
absorbs heat Qreb at temperature Treb and the overhead condenser
rejects heat Qcond at temperature Tcond. By assuming no subcooling
or superheating for the condensation and evaporation, heat surplus
and deficit of a distillation column can be represented as a quadri-
lateral box in the T  H diagram, as shown in Fig. 1a [23].
The Grand Composite Curve of a background process (BPGCC) is
also depicted in Fig. 1a, which shows the cascade heat flow of the
background process, requiring the minimum hot utility QH,min and
the minimum cold utility QC,min. Fig. 1a illustrates the case in which
the distillation column is located across the pinch point and so it
3
cannot be integrated with the background process directly.
Thus, the total hot utility demand of the overall process is
QH = QH,min + Qreb and the total cold utility demand is QC = QC,
min + Qcond.
Referring to the work of Yang et al. [30], a heat pump can be
placed to change the pinch point. As shown in Fig. 1b, the heat
pump absorbs heat Q2 at temperature T2 and rejects heat Q1 at
temperature T1. When the amount of heat Q1 is larger than the
deficient heat H1 at temperature T1 on the BPGCC, the pinch point
is changed from point P to P1 with the introduction of a heat pump
to the existing process and a new BPGCC is established. Conse-
quently, the required hot utility for the background process is
QH,min  H1 and the required cold utility is QC,min + (Q1  Q2)  H1.
Furthermore, the distillation column is now located below the
new BPGCC, as shown in Fig. 1c. For the overall process, the total
hot utility is QH = QH,min  H1 and the total cold utility is reduced
to QC = QC,min + (Q1  Q2)  H1 + Qcond  Qreb. It should be noted that,
in order to fully meet the heat demands of the distillation process,
T1 should not be lower than Treb and the amount of Q1 should not
be smaller than H1 + Qreb.
A heat pocket may exist in the GCC when surplus of local heat
sources lies above the pinch point or deficit of local heat sinks lies
below the pinch point. Since the local heat source can satisfy the
local heat sink when they are in the same heat pocket, the heat
pocket can be excluded when the heat integration of heat pumps
with the background process is considered [30]. However, in this
work, these pockets existing in the GCC are strategically used to
facilitate the heat recovery between a distillation process and its
background process with the assistance of heat pumps.
Fig. 2a shows a GCC of a background process with a heat pocket
above the pinch point, and a distillation column is located across
the pinch point. When a heat pump is placed across the pinch point
(Fig. 2b), the amount of absorbed heat (Q2) is smaller than the
amount of surplus process heat (H2) at temperature T2, while the
amount of rejected heat (Q1) is equal to the amount of deficient
heat (H1) at temperature T1, but is larger than the amount of defi-
cient heat at the pocket (Hpoc). As shown in Fig. 2b, the pinch point
is now changed from point P to P1. The new BPGCC shows that the
temperature of the new pinch point is higher than T1 and Treb. Now,
the heat integration between the distillation column and the
background process can be achieved because the distillation
column is located below the new pinch point of the updated
BPGCC, as shown in Fig. 2c. For the overall process, the total
hot utility is QH = QH,min  Hpoc and the total cold utility is
QC = QC,min + (Q1  Q2)  Hpoc + Qcond  Qreb.
By comparing the two cases in Figs. 1 and 2, the reboiler of the
distillation column in Fig. 1 absorbs heat Qreb from the heat pump,
while the reboiler in Fig. 2 absorbs heat Qreb from the local heat
source in the heat pocket. With the existence of the local heat
source above the original pinch point, the temperature lift for heat
pumping is reduced. In this way, the heat in the heat pocket is used
by grade and better energy efficiency can be achieved.
2.2. Scenario 2: Decrease in the pinch temperature
Fig. 3 illustrates the case of BPGCC to be integrated with a dis-
tillation column when the position of the pinch point is shifted
downward. In the base case, a distillation column is located across
the pinch point of BPGCC (Fig. 3a). Then, a heat pump is placed
across the pinch point, as shown in Fig. 3b. It is noted that the
amount of absorbed heat Q2 is larger than the surplus process heat
H2 at temperature T2, and the rejected heat Q1 is equal to the defi-
cient heat H1 at temperature T1. With the integration of a heat
pump, the pinch point is changed from point P to P1, and the
4 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110

Fig. 1. Heat integration based on the increased pinch temperature 1.5-column.

Fig. 2. Heat integration based on the increased pinch temperature (a heat pocket above the original pinch point) 1.5-column.

Fig. 3. Heat integration based on the decreased pinch temperature 1.5-column.

 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
Fig. 4. Heat integration based on the decreased pinch temperature (a heat pocket below the original pinch point) 1.5-column.
distillation column can be placed above the new pinch point of the
updated BPGCC, as shown in Fig. 3c. For the overall process, the
overall requirement of cold utility is QC = QC,min  H2 and that of
hot utility is QH = QH,min  (Q1  Q2)  H2 + Qreb  Qcond. It should
be noted that the temperature T2 cannot be higher than Tcond and
the amount of heat Q2 cannot be smaller than H2 + Qcond.
As similarly considered in the first scenario, here we will look at
the case of having a heat pocket below the pinch point as well as
having a distillation column being located across the pinch point
(Fig. 4a). A heat pump is placed across the pinch point, as shown
in Fig. 4b. When the amount of absorbed heat Q2 is larger than heat
Hpoc, the pinch point is shifted downward from P to P1, which now
allows the heat integration between the distillation column and
the background process, as shown in Fig. 4c. For this case, T2 is
higher than Tcond but the temperature of the new pinch point is
lower than both T2 and Tcond. For the overall process, the total
hot utility is QH = QH,min  (Q1  Q2)  Hpoc + Qreb  Qcond and the
total cold utility is QC = QC,min  Hpoc.
The condensation for distillation is realized by releasing heat to
the heat pump (Fig. 3) while the heat from the column condenser is
rejected to the local heat sink existing in the heat pocket (Fig. 4),
Fig. 5. Heat integration with no change in the pinch temperature single-column.
5
which has been made more energy-efficient by having a smaller
temperature difference for heat pumping.
2.3. Scenario 3: No change in the pinch temperature
Sections 2.1 and 2.2 describe how heat integration between a
distillation column and its background process can be made possi-
ble by changing the temperature of the pinch point. However,
there is potential for achieving better heat recovery without chang-
ing the pinch temperature when heat pumps are integrated. As
shown in Fig. 5, heat pumps can be placed at two different loca-
tions. Heat pump 1 absorbs the heat from the background process
and rejects the heat to the reboiler of a distillation column, while
Heat pump 2 absorbs the heat from the condenser of a distillation
column and rejects the heat to the background process. Besides,
the amount of absorbed heat Q 12 of heat pump 1 is smaller than
the surplus process heat at temperature T 12 , and the amount of
rejected heat Q 21 of heat pump 2 is smaller than the deficient heat
at temperature T 21 . Thus, the pinch temperature is not changed, and
accordingly, the total hot utility required for the overall process is
decreased from QH,min + Qreb to QH,min  Q 21 and the total cold utility
is decreased from QC,min + Qcond to QC,min  Q 12 .
Compared with scenarios 1 and 2, the heat integration
in scenario 3 is achieved without changes in the pinch
temperature at the expense of an increase in the number of heat
pumps.
For all heat pumps in scenarios 13, their temperature lift can
be smaller than the temperature difference between the reboiler
and the condenser of the distillation column. Also, heat pumps
are employed to supply heat required for the distillation column
as well as for some of the heat demand in the background process.
Such synergetic benefits gained from the proposed heat integration
options provide more opportunities in heat recovery, leading to
further energy savings. However, the specific characteristics of a
distillation column and its background process will determine
whether heat integration can be achieved and which is the better
scenario.
3. Investigation of heat pumps placement
Section 2 describes in considerable detail the heat integration of
heat pumps, a distillation column and its background process.
When designing or retrofitting a heat exchanger network, the
6 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
Fig. 6. Example for identifying the operating parameters of heat pumps single-
column.
operating conditions of heat pumps and the streams to be matched
with heat pumps still need to be determined. These topics are
discussed here.
3.1. Operating conditions of heat pumps
A large temperature lift through a heat pump should be avoided
because it can reduce the COP of the heat pump [27]. Here, an
approach is presented to systematically determine the energy-
optimum operating conditions of a heat pump, leading to the
smallest possible temperature lift, while the desired heat integra-
tion can still be fully realized. For convenience, this design concept
is illustrated with an example depicted in Fig. 6.
Step 1: The BPGCC shows the overall heat deficit or surplus and
its temperature level for a background process. Based on the
BPGCC and the operating conditions of the distillation column,
either the heat Q1 available at temperature T1, or the heat Q2
available at temperature T2 can be selected for coupling with
a heat pump. As shown in Fig. 6a, when the amount of Q1 is
smaller than the sum of Qreb + Hpoc, the distillation column
cannot be fully integrated into the overall process; on the other
hand, when the amount of Q1 is larger than the sum of
Qreb + Hpoc, this surplus heat Q1  (Qreb + Hpoc) brings no savings
for hot or cold utilities. Hence, the optimal amount of heat Q1 is
Hpoc + Qreb. With this amount of heat available for heat integra-
tion, the lowest temperature T1 for the heat pump can be deter-
mined such that the deficient heat H1 equals Q1 from the BPGCC,
as shown in Fig. 6b.
To be clear, it is noteworthy that the temperature of cold
streams presented on the GCC is higher than its real value by
0.5DTmin and the temperature of hot stream presented on the
GCC is lower than its real value by 0.5DTmin. Therefore, Eqs.
(1) and (2) can be derived:
T real
1 T 1 0:5DT min
T real
2 T 2  0:5DT min
where the superscript real represents the actual stream
conditions.
Step 2: The amount of heat Q2 to be rejected at temperature T2,
which corresponds to the amount of heat Q1 to be absorbed at
T1, can be estimated by simple empirical formulas or a rigorous
mathematical model of heat pumps. One practical measure for
evaluating the performance of a vapor compression heat pump
is the COP which is given in Eqs. (3) and (4), with which the
amount of heat Q2 at temperature T2 can be calculated as shown
in Eq. (5). When T1 and Q1 are fixed, the amount of Q2 is linearly
related to temperature T2.
Q1 Q1
COP 3
W Q1  Q2
T 1 0:5DT min 273:2
COP gC  4
T 1 0:5DT min  T 2  0:5DT min
Q1 T 1 0:5DT min 273:2
gC  5
Q1  Q2 T 1 0:5DT min  T 2  0:5DT min
where gC is the Carnot efficiency.
Step 3: The BPGCC in Fig. 6 shows that the amount of surplus
process heat increases with decreasing temperature below the
pinch point. Considering Eq. (5) together with the BPGCC, the
amount of heat Q2 to be rejected by the heat pump as well as
temperature T2 can be determined. This allows the heat integra-
tion between heat sources and heat sinks in the distillation col-
umn and its background process, and the minimum
temperature lift for the heat pump is identified, as shown in
Fig. 6b.
3.2. Process streams integrated with heat pumps
After the operating conditions of the heat pump have been
determined based on the BPGCC, the next step is to select process
streams to be integrated with the heat pump. So far, the stream
releasing its heat to the heat pump is treated as a single stream,
and so is the stream absorbing heat from the heat pump. However,
more than one process stream can be present in the GCC, and con-
sequently stream splitting and combination may be necessary to
integrate process streams with the heat pump when the most
appropriate conditions identified from the previous sections are
desired [28]. In general, there is more than one feasible option
for the selection of process streams.
Due to the high capital cost of heat pumps [27], and to reduce
the number of heat pumps used, an assumption is made that a heat
pump is allowed to simultaneously absorb heat from different pro-
cess hot streams and reject heat to different process cold streams.
Consequently, multiple heat exchangers may need to be applied in
the heat pump system. The total number of process streams inte-
grated with the heat pump determines the number of heat
exchangers to be used in the heat pump system, which indicates
the configurational complexity of the heat pump system. For a
vapor compression heat pump, at least two heat exchangers are
required, one of which is an evaporator and the other is a con-
denser. From this observation, the minimum number of process
streams is preferred when streams for heat integration are to be
selected.
1
2
Fig. 7. Determining the streams to be integrated with heat pump single-column.
 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
Fig. 7 shows the enlarged part of Fig. 6 in which the heat pump
is integrated with BPGCC. The shaded parts in Fig. 7 represent the
feasible regions for selecting hot and cold streams to be integrated
with the heat pump. All the hot and cold streams are expressed as a
series of segments in the T  H diagram. In Fig. 7, a hot stream is
expressed as a segment with a negative slope and a cold stream
is expressed as a segment with a positive slope. If the use of a sin-
gle hot or cold stream is desired to satisfy the corresponding heat
demand of the heat pump, it is necessary to consider both the tem-
perature and heat load of the stream. The procedure of selecting a
single stream is illustrated in Fig. 7.
First, shift all the segments of streams to the left until the right
end vertexes, indicated by A and B, of the two shaded regions are
located on the segments of cold and hot streams, respectively, as
shown in Fig. 7. Any streams that cannot meet this condition
should not be considered for selection, for example, cold stream
1. If the segment of a process stream does not intersect with the
vertical axis in Fig. 7, for example, cold stream 2, the heat load of
this kind of stream is not big enough and this stream should not
be considered as well. Next, if a part of the segment appears out-
side of the shaded region, such as hot stream 1, this stream should
also be excluded due to the infeasibility in heat exchange of the
background process. Finally, hot stream 2 and cold stream 3 are
the feasible streams for integrating with the heat pump.
In this situation, if cold stream 3 and hot stream 2 are selected
to be integrated with the heat pump, only two heat exchangers (an
evaporator and a condenser) are needed. If a single hot or cold
stream cannot be selected for the integration with the heat pump,
the combination of several process streams is necessary and the
way to select streams and combine them should reflect the heat
transfer feasibility constrained by the shaded regions. As a result,
the number of heat exchangers in the heat pump system is
increased.
4. Process modifications for distillation process
Process modifications can be considered as a way to alter oper-
ating conditions or change the process flowsheet, leading to mod-
ification of process data which may give more opportunities for
heat recovery, reduce the energy target or allow a simpler or
cheaper network [33]. For a distillation process, process modifica-
tions generally include changing the operating pressure, adding an
intermediate reboiler or condenser, splitting the heat loads, chang-
ing the reflux ratio and preheating the feed, etc. [23]. These modi-
fications change the compositions of product streams and the heat
loads of the condenser and reboiler. Process modifications for dis-
tillation should not compromise the quality of products. Also, any
potential benefit gained from process modifications for the distilla-
tion should be judged together with energy consumption because
improving product quality may lead to potential increase in heat
duties of the condenser and reboiler. Any physical limitations or
practical constraints associated with process modifications should
be considered for determining the degree of implementation in
practice.
As shown in Fig. 8a, a distillation column is located across the
pinch point of the original BPGCC. It is not feasible to fully integrate
this distillation column into the overall process by process modifi-
cations only because considerable change in column pressure is
needed to ensure feasibility for heat integration. Referring to the
design concepts proposed in this work, Scenario 1 is appropriate
for further consideration. However, some part of condensation of
the distillation column is not feasible for heat integration with
the background process, as may be deduced from the new BPGCC
(Fig. 8a). Hence, process modifications of the distillation column
may now be used to achieve heat recovery of the distillation col-
umn with the background process.
7
4.1. Changing the operating pressure
Changing the operating pressure of a distillation column influ-
ences the operating temperatures of the condenser and reboiler.
Raising the operating pressure increases the temperatures of the
condenser and reboiler while lowering the operating pressure
decreases the corresponding temperatures. Permissible maximum
and minimum bounds for changing column pressure exist as illus-
trated by the shaded region in Fig. 8b. It should be noted that the
new adjusted column pressure for improving heat integration
should be within the acceptable operation range and without com-
promising product quality.
For the example given in Fig. 8b, operating pressure should be
reduced to move the quadrilateral box downward to make the heat
integration of the distillation column with the new BPGCC feasible,
which is depicted by the dotted quadrilateral box.
4.2. Feed preheating and addition of intermediate side reboiler
Feed preheating provides an increase of energy input to the feed
tray as well as a reduction in the heat duty of the reboiler.
Addition of an intermediate side reboiler can supply heat at a
lower temperature than that of the reboiler, which facilitates evap-
oration of liquid in an intermediate tray of the column and can
reduce the heat duty of the reboiler as well.
Both feed preheating and addition of an intermediate side
reboiler do not reduce the overall duty of hot utility required for
the distillation column but they are able to accept lower quality
of hot utility, leading to savings in energy cost. The operating con-
ditions of the distillation column are updated which can accommo-
date lower grade hot utility, as illustrated in Fig. 8c. The updated
conditions for the distillation column are now located within the
feasible design region given by the new BPGCC, which makes the
heat integration feasible.
In summary, the heat integration between a distillation process
and its background process can be systematically achieved through
integration of heat pumps with process modifications in an inte-
grated manner. It should be noted that process modifications
may make it easy for integrating heat pumps with the background
process, but any potential negative impacts, for example, degrada-
tion of distillation product quality or increase of heat duties, should
be collectively evaluated together with the benefits gained from
the heat integration.
5. Case study
This case study is used to illustrate how the proposed method-
ology can be effectively applied for achieving the heat integration
between a distillation process and its background process.
Fig. 9 shows a simplified flowsheet of a chemical process, and
the detailed stream data are listed in Table 1. The background pro-
cess consumes hot utility 40 kW and cold utility 148 kW. When the
distillation column is included, the total consumptions of hot and
cold utilities are 78 kW and 188 kW, respectively.
The energy flow for the background process is analyzed by
pinch analysis. When DTmin is assumed to be 10 C, the average
pinch temperature is found to be 75 C (i.e. 80 C for hot streams
and 70 C for cold streams), and the minimum hot and cold utilities
are 10 kW and 118 kW, respectively. The GCC of the background
process is given in Fig. 10.
As shown in Fig. 11, the distillation process is located across the
pinch point. Here, a vapor compression heat pump is used to facil-
itate the heat integration. With the across-pinch rule, R142b with a
critical temperature of 136.45 C is chosen as the working fluid of
the heat pump. Following the design procedure described in Sec-
8 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110

Fig. 8. Illustration of process changes of a distillation process: (a) base case; (b) pressure change; (c) feed preheating and addition of an intermediate reboiler 1.5-column.

Although the operating conditions of the heat pump are deter-

mined by taking into account the minimum temperature lift for
heat pumping, none of the hot streams can solely meet the heat
duty required for the integration with the heat pump, as shown
in Fig. 11. It means that at least three heat exchangers (one
condenser and two evaporators) are required in the heat pump
system.
In Fig. 11, hot stream 3 is located close to the feasible region and
thus it is selected as the heat source to supply heat to the heat
pump. Now, new operating conditions for the heat pump are deter-
mined as Q2 equals 38.8 kW and T2 (based on the actual tempera-
ture) equals 54.6 C, as shown in Fig. 12. The external energy to be
supplied for the heat pump is 9.2 kW and the COP of the heat pump
is 5.2. The heat pump absorbs 38.8 kW of heat from hot stream 3
and its temperature is reduced from 72.4 C to 64.6 C. The heat
pump rejects 48 kW of heat to cold stream 2 and its temperature
is increased from 75.2 C to 87.2 C. In this way, only two heat
exchangers are required in the heat pump system, and a further
increase in the temperature lift of heat pumping is only 0.2 C.
Fig. 13 shows the improved flowsheet after implementing the
solutions described above. The total hot utility is 0 kW and the
total cold utility is 119.2 kW. The temperature lift of the heat pump
Fig. 9. Flowsheet of the case study (modified from Ref. [34]) single-column.
is 42.6 C which is smaller than the temperature difference

Table 1
Stream data of the process.

Stream CP/(kW/C) Tsup/C Ttar/C Heat load/kW

Hot 1 1 180 80 100
Hot 2 2 130 40 180
Hot 3 5 80 50 150
Cold 1 1.8 30 120 162
Cold 2 4 60 100 160
Column Reboiler 130 (liquid) 130 (vapor) 38
Condenser 60 (vapor) 60 (liquid) 40

tion 4, Q1 is found to be 48 kW, and T1 is determined as 92.2 C (i.e.

real temperature is 97.2 C) on the BPGCC. Assuming that the Car-
not efficiency gC is 60%, when the heat pump absorbs heat from the
heat source available in the background process, Q2 is found to be
38.9 kW and T2 is 59.8 C (i.e. real temperature is 54.8 C), based on
Eq. (5) and the BPGCC. On the other hand, when the heat pump
absorbs the heat from the condenser of distillation column, T2
(based on the actual temperature) should not be higher than
50 C because DTmin is 10 C. Therefore, the former option is better
than the latter one. Fig. 10. The GCC of the background process in the case study single-column.
 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
Fig. 11. Identification of heat pump placement 1.5-column.
Fig. 12. Improvement of heat pump placement single-column.
Fig. 13. Resulting flowsheet after implementing the heat integration single-
column.
9
Fig. 14. Simplified flowsheet for the case study single-column.
between the reboiler and the condenser. However, it can be seen
that the heat exchanger network is more complex than the original
one.
It is possible to simplify the flowsheet given in Fig. 13 through
process modifications for the heat pump. By maintaining the
determined operating conditions, namely, the four parameters T1,
Q1, T2 and Q2 of the heat pump, driving force for the heat exchange
related to hot stream 3 and cold stream 2 in the heat pump can be
slightly changed, as designed in Fig. 14. As a result, the minimum
temperature difference in the updated flowsheet of Fig. 14 is
9.6 C in the evaporator and 7.9 C in the condenser of the heat
pump, compared to the original value of 10 C. Although the reduc-
tion in driving force in the exchanger leads to larger heat exchan-
ger areas for the reboiler and condenser, two exchangers, heat
exchangers 3 and 8, can be removed in the simplified flowsheet.
The details of the simplified flowsheet are shown in Fig. 14.
In this case study, a heat pump is placed to absorb heat from
a hot stream below the original pinch point and to reject heat to
a cold stream above the original pinch point. This increases the
pinch temperature from 75 C to 175 C. With the introduction
of the heat pump, the distillation column can be fully integrated
into the overall process, i.e. the reboiler of the distillation col-
10 M. Yang et al. / Applied Energy 162 (2016) 110
umn absorbs heat from a hot stream in the background process
and the condenser of the distillation column rejects heat to the
cold utility. Consequently, the application of the heat pump
reduces hot utility and cold utility by 48 kW and 38.8 kW,
respectively.
6. Conclusions
In this work, a novel design methodology based on pinch anal-
ysis is proposed to systematically analyze the simultaneous heat
integration of heat pumps, a distillation process, and its back-
ground process.
For the case in which a distillation process is located across the
pinch point, heat pumps can be used to facilitate the heat integra-
tion between the distillation process and its background process.
Three possible scenarios for such heat integration are presented.
(1) A heat pump is introduced, causing the pinch temperature to
increase. The process heat below the new pinch point can satisfy
the heat duty of the reboiler. (2) A heat pump is introduced, caus-
ing the pinch temperature to decrease. The condenser of the distil-
lation column can provide heat for the cold streams above the new
pinch point. (3) Two heat pumps are introduced to integrate the
distillation column and the background process.
In the case study considered in this paper, the proposed heat
integration scheme provides 61.5% and 20.6% reduction in hot
and cold utilities, respectively. Also, the temperature lift of the heat
pump is determined to be 42.6 C, which is much smaller than the
temperature difference between the reboiler and the condenser
(70 C). This illustrates that the proposed heat integration method
allows a smaller temperature lift for heat pump, compared with
the traditional method for heat pump assisted distillation, and pro-
vides more opportunities for energy savings.
In the proposed work, conceptual understanding for the simul-
taneous integration of heat pumps and distillation columns with
the background process is obtained. As the design procedure pro-
posed in this paper is based on graphical methods using pinch
analysis, it is relatively easy to apply and can give clear design
insights. However, this work only discusses the aspect of improv-
ing the energy efficiency of distillation columns by implementing
heat-integrated heat pumps without considering the investment
cost. Our future work will investigate the impacts of capital invest-
ment on the overall process.
Acknowledgements
Financial support from the National Basic Research Program of
China (973 Program: 2012CB720500) and the National Natural
Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 21276204 is
gratefully acknowledged.
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