Application of Pinch Technology for Waste Heat Recovery in The Linear-Alkyl-Benzene Sulfonation Process

Abstract

In this study, an optimum waste heat recovery system in the linear-alkyl-benzene sulfonation process was designed through three different scenarios, using pinch technology. In these proposed energy conservation schemes, the waste heat was recovered for boiler feed water preheating, saturated steam production and combined saturated steam and power generation as three different energy conservation scenarios. All the scenarios provided hot air needed for the silica-gel regeneration from waste heat recovery. The boiler feed water preheating in the first scenario, might save fuel consumed in the boiler. The saturated steam, produced in the second and third scenarios, could be used to partially fulfill the plant steam requirement and the power, generated in the last proposal, would be supplied to the plant. Economic analyses of the three proposed waste heat recovery scenarios were performed in order to determine the superior one. The results showed that about 150 kW power and 27.4 % of the plant's steam demand could be provided in the optimum scenario and the simple payback time was less than 22 months.