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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Activated Energy Analysis in Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Performing Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Preparing Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS Model for Export to Aspen Energy Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Unit of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Performing Optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
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Introduction
In todays business climate, profitability is of pinnacle importance. One of the challenges facing industrial plants in
reaching profitability is the minimization of annual costs related to utility consumption. In order to achieve a reduction in
utility costs, many plants choose to perform an integration of heat exchangers. The specific network of heat exchangers
that make best use of the available in-house heating and cooling is constructed using pinch calculations. However, these
calculations can be daunting for simple plant setups with little equipment, and only increase in difficulty with a higher
sophistication of plant design.
To respond to this challenge, Aspen Technology has introduced innovative approaches to optimize energy use while
conducting process simulation in its Activated Energy Analysis and Aspen Energy Analyzer products.
Activated Energy Analysis operates inside the Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS modeling environment, and with a single
click, provides a summary of annual utility and greenhouse gas expenditures, along with potential savings through
optimization for a process. Activated Energy Analysis generates various optimization scenarios that can be implemented
to reduce utility dependence, and shows details relevant to the optimization, including required capital cost, annual
reduction in utility cost, and payback period for investment.
Aspen Energy Analyzer allows a user to upload a process flowsheet created in Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS to be
analyzed for heating and cooling efficiency. Aspen Energy Analyzer constructs a pinch diagram for the heat exchanger
network that gives the best organization of process streams and supplied utilities to minimize utility consumption.
Utilizing pinch technology, Aspen Energy Analyzer guides users in designing the network by recovering the heat between
heat sources and sinks and minimizes the usage of heating and cooling mediums in the process plant.
Within a heat integration project, individual heat exchangers can be probed to view important, optimal descriptors, such
as duty, size, approach temperature, and hot and cold side stream names. Using the retrofit option, network topology and
heat exchanger areas are able to be optimized multiple times to further reduce utility consumption through the relocation
or resizing of existing heat exchangers, or the addition of new heat exchangers. Aspen Energy Analyzer also provides
capital costing and annualized heating and cooling costing (based on user specific utility input) for both the base case and
optimized cases.
This document is not meant to be used as a stand-alone reference document. We recommend that a range of other
resources be called upon to give the new user a comprehensive view of how to use solids modeling in Aspen Plus. These
may include:
AspenTech support website (support.aspentech.com) this website has a wealth of information on the use of
AspenTech products and provides answers to frequently asked questions
AspenTech courseware available in online and in-person versions
AspenTech business consultants
This document will show how to take a process flowsheet from Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS and evaluate it using Aspen
Energy Analyzer and its many features. It assumes that the user has Aspen Plus V8 or higher or Aspen HYSYS V8 or
higher installed on her or his computer and a functional process design completed.
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Figure 1: Launching Activated Energy Analysis from the configuration form in Energy Analysis tab
Activated Energy Analysis can also be launched by navigating to the Energy Panel in the Activation Dashboard. Within
the Energy Panel, activate the tool by scrolling or clicking on the off button at the bottom right corner of the Energy Panel
to the on position, as demonstrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2: How to launch Activated Energy Analysis from the Activation Dashboard
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Performing Optimization
Once Activated Energy Analysis has been run, the Energy Panel of the Activation Dashboard will detail the Available
Energy Savings. This panel compares current and target energy expenditures, showing the difference between the two
displayed as the available energy savings duty, as well as the percentage of available energy savings as compared to the
current expenditures. Additionally, in the Energy Analysis Tab, the Savings Summary form shows the actual and target
energy expenditures for: total utilities, heating utilities, cooling utilities, and carbon emissions on a basis of both the flow
and cost of each utility type and carbon emission.
Details from Activated Energy Analysis can be seen through the Utilities, Carbon Emissions, and Exchangers tabs.
Within the Design Changes tab, the user can utilize Activated Energy Analysis to generate a list of design changes from
a heat integration optimization by clicking the Find Design Changes button, as shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 5: Economic and design details for process optimization suggestion in Activated Energy Analysis
To compare the base design to the three new proposed optimization scenarios, click the Compare Scenarios button in
the toolbar, and then select the Result Comparison option in the Energy Analysis listing window. Those two steps, along
with a sample result comparison table example, are shown in Figure 6 below.
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Once a working process model is created in Aspen Plus, it must be saved in backup file (.bkp) format, as this is the type of
file compatible with Aspen Energy Analyzer. In Aspen HYSYS, the file format read by Aspen Energy Analyzer is HYSYS
case (.hsc). To accomplish this, select the file option in Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS, then select the Save As option, and
at the bottom right of the save window that opens, open the scroll and choose the appropriate format.
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Once Aspen Energy Analyzer has been opened, begin a new heat integration project by selecting the New HI Project
option as depicted below in figure 10.
Once a new project is opened, a window is created that will eventually show the results of the heat integration, and also
allow the user to optimize the heat exchanger setup. In order to begin the heat integration using Aspen Energy Analyzer,
the Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS flowsheet of interest must be imported. To do so, select the appropriate Data Transfer
from Aspen HYSYS (left), Data Transferfrom Aspen Plus (middle). If the file to be uploaded is in Microsoft Excel format,
select the Data Transfer from Excel (right) icon. Importing data from Microsoft Excel requires a certain format, as
described in the next subsection. Figure 11 shows the location of the three importation options.
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Figure 11: Extracting data from either Aspen Plus, Aspen HYSYS, or Microsoft Excel
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10
Figure 17: Heat exchanger network and details for ethylene separation example
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On the heat exchanger network diagram, horizontal lines represent a process stream or utility. A blue horizontal line
indicates a cold stream that absorbs energy in a heat exchanger, while a red horizontal line indicates a hot stream that
loses energy in a heat exchanger. The streams are named according to their designation in Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS,
either to the left (hot stream) or to the right (cold stream) of the diagram. The starting temperature for cold streams is on
the right of the diagram, while the final temperature is on the left. The starting temperature for hot streams is on the left
of the diagram, while the final temperature is on the right.
The vertical lines and filled circles represent a heat exchanger pairing. Red circles represent a heat exchanger in which a
hot process stream or utility is required; similarly, blue circles represent a heat exchanger in which a cold process stream
or utility is required.
An individual heat exchanger can be probed on the heat exchanger network diagram by double clicking any of the colored
circles. Probing a heat exchanger provides additional details about it, such as its duty, area, and the cold and hot streams
that pass through it. Also provided are the temperature differentials between the two streams at the hot or cold end of the
heat exchanger. This is illustrated in Figure 19, which shows the details of HTR1 from the ethylene separation example.
Figure 19: HTR1 details from Ethylene Separation example in Aspen Plus
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If the user wishes to view a list of heat exchanger details in table form, click the Heat Exchangers tab towards the bottom
of the Aspen Energy Analyzer program. The tab to select is circled in Figure 20. Figure 21 contains the table of heat
exchanger details. This table can be verified through the individual probing of each heat exchanger.
Figure 20: Heat Exchangers tab showing details of heat integration in table form
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Figure 23: Performance tables for ethylene separation example in Aspen Plus
The table on the left provides the annualized cost of heating and cooling utilities, the annualized cost to operate the heat
exchanger network, the capital cost of purchasing the equipment included in the heat exchanger network, and the total
cumulative annualized cost to operate the heat exchanger network.
The table on the right provides the total amount of heating and cooling necessary in energy units, as well as the number of
heat exchangers and their shells. Also included is summation of heat exchanger area in the network.
The % of Target column in each table is significant, because it shows whether an optimization to the heat exchanger
network is able to be performed. For the example shown in Figure 23, because 59,810 kW represent 111.9% of the target
heating consumption, heating can be reduced by as much as 11.9% through optimization of the heat exchanger network.
Similarly, since 61,920 kW is 111.4% of the target cooling load, once optimization is performed, the total area of the heat
exchangers in the network will decrease by up to 11.4%.
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By clicking Enter Retrofit Environment, a clone of the original heat integration case should appear in the project viewer
box on the left of the Aspen Energy Analyzer program. The original heat integration is named Scenario 1, while the
retrofit clone is named Scenario 1 1.
Performing Optimizations
Three options exist for optimizing a heat integration in Aspen Energy Analyzer to further facilitate heat transfer. Area can
be added to existing heat exchangers, new heat exchangers can be added to the process, or one or more streams into a
heat exchanger can be rearranged with another heat exchanger. To begin, ensure that SimulationBaseCase is selected
under Scenario 1 1 in the viewer box, and perform optimization by selecting the Move One End of a Heat Exchanger,
Move Both Ends of a Heat Exchanger, Add a Heat Exchanger, or Add Area option on the toolbar, as shown in Figure 25.
Figure 25: Move end of heat exchanger, add heat exchanger, and add area options
After selecting one of the optimization options, a screen will prompt the user to provide a maximum investment cost.
This determines whether the optimization that Aspen Energy Analyzer performs is economically feasible within the now
defined budget. It is recommended for best results to input a large number, such as 1e9, in order to view all optimization
options available for the process.
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After entering the maximum investment cost, Aspen Energy Analyzer will perform optimizations and display up to five
results for the option selected, under the cloned scenario in the viewer box.
Note that this is the same optimization process that occurs in Activated Energy Analysis as described in the first section
of this guide. However, in Aspen Energy Analyzer, once the first round of optimization is completed, further optimization
to the newly created optimized cases can be performed, as long as the target utility use has not been reached. For
instance, this means that by using Aspen Energy Analyzer, a second heat exchanger can be added to a process that
already had a new heat exchanger inserted.
Figure 26: Heat exchanger network for heat exchanger addition 1N-2
Along with a new heat exchanger network diagram, Aspen Energy Analyzer provides a new performance table that
numerically represents how the optimization would perform versus the original, base case heat integration. The table is
shown in Figure 27.
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As can be observed from this table, the optimized designs heating cost index, heating load, cooling cost index, and
cooling load is less than that for the original base case heat integration. Also of interest are the New Area Cost Index
and Operating Savings display windows. These windows quantify how much additional capital cost is necessary to
implement the newly designed optimization, and how much annually the process will save in utility costs for heating or
cooling, respectively. The Payback display window tells the user how long it will take for the operating cost savings to
intersect the capital cost expenditure to insert the new optimization, i.e. when the operating cost savings become profit
for the operation of this process.
Figure 28: Heat exchanger network for heat exchanger addition 1N-3
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Comparing the first optimization to the second optimization, the second optimization reduces heating cost index, heating
load, cooling cost index, and cooling load more than the first optimization. Ultimately, the second optimization reduces
operating cost more significantly than the first. However, the reduction comes at a greater capital cost expenditure, and
thus, optimization twos payback period is longer than that for the first optimization.
Figure 30: Heat exchanger network for heat exchanger addition 1N-4
As can be ascertained from the performance table, optimization three does not perform as well as the other two
optimization suggestions, but does represent a decrease in energy consumption and cost when compared to the base
case scenario.
Ultimately, it would be up to the process engineer or company utilizing Aspen Energy Analyzer to decide which
optimization case is most feasible and appropriate to implement, depending on plant life expectancy, desire to save
energy consumption versus cost, and other factors.
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Figure 32: Heat exchanger network for heat exchanger addition 1N-4 with second heat exchanger
Figure 33: Performance table for heat exchanger addition 1N-4 with second heat exchanger
By adding the second heat exchanger, the heat integration shows improved performance when compared to the initial
optimization, from page 22, with only a single heat exchanger addition.
Similarly, if the user had initially chosen to move both ends of a heat exchanger rather than add a new heat exchanger, a
heat integration, such as in Figure 34, would have been offered showing the new heat exchanger alignment in green. The
accompanying performance table is featured in Figure 35.
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Figure 34: Heat exchanger network after moving ends of heat exchanger for ethylene separation
Figure 35: Performance table after moving ends of heat exchanger for ethylene separation
There are many possible optimization arrangements available to the user by using combinations of the Move End of Heat
Exchanger, Add a Heat Exchanger, and Add Area options to tailor a heat integration of process heaters and coolers.
Conclusions
Aspen Energy Analyzer is an accurate and powerful tool that, in mere minutes, utilizes sophisticated pinch analytical
methods to reduce substantial amounts of heating and cooling costs. These savings in heating and cooling costs
generated will ultimately manifest themselves as profit for the user of Aspen Energy Analyzer. With only a few clicks,
Aspen Energy Analyzer provides a preliminary heat integration of process streams, and up to five cases for each
optimization performed thereafter. Optimization further decreases heating and cooling consumption and cost from the
preliminary case. Aspen Energy Analyzer is a must-have accessory to Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS for the chemical,
petroleum, or pharmaceutical process looking to maximize revenue and minimize reliance on fresh utility supply and
environmental impact.
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Additional Resources
Public Website:
http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-hx-net.aspx
http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-hysys.aspx
http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-plus
Online Training:
http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-online-training
On-Demand Webinars:
Maximize Your Energy Savings Using Energy Analysis within Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS
http://www.aspentech.com/webinar-recording/energy-analysis/
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About AspenTech
AspenTech is a leading supplier of software that optimizes process manufacturingfor energy,
chemicals, engineering and construction, and other industries that manufacture and produce products
from a chemical process. With integrated aspenONE solutions, process manufacturers can implement
best practices for optimizing their engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. As a result,
AspenTech customers are better able to increase capacity, improve margins, reduce costs, and become
more energy efficient. To see how the worlds leading process manufacturers rely on AspenTech to
achieve their operational excellence goals, visit www.aspentech.com.
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