Energy Analysis Demo Script

Jack Zhang

Product Manager – Energy Management

Introduction

The objective of this demo is to show the users on how to use the activated energy analysis in HYSYS to
revamp the existing heat exchanger network in order to reduce energy consumption in the process. To
demonstrate the new features, user needs to install Aspen HYSYS v8.0 and Aspen Energy Analyzer v8.0
or later version. If you wish to demonstrate the work flow of integrated EDR features in HYSYS following
this demo, you will also need to install Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating V8.0 or later version. Even
though this demo is based in Aspen HYSYS, the same functionalities are available in Aspen Plus V8.0.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact Jack Zhang, Product Manager for Energy
Management.

Process Description

The demo file is based on a simplified crude distillation column with crude preheat train in HYSYS. Cold
crude is heated up to 232°C in the first section of crude preheat train and sent to the pre flash drum to
separate the light naphtha and gases from the heavy components. The bottom of the preflash drum is
then heated to 260°C in the second section of the preheat train before sending to the crude furnace.
The hot crude from the furnace is pumped to the crude atmospheric column at 343°C and separated
into several straight-run fractions including naphtha, kerosene, diesel and gas oil. The reduced crude is
sent to the vacuum tower (not included in the case) for the further separation.

The entire crude preheat train is modeled in a subflowsheet Preheat Train. Because of tightly thermal
coupling between crude column and crude preheat train model, two dummy heaters HEN-1 and HEN-2
are used to represents the first and section sections of preheat train respectively so the crude
distillation columns and crude preheat train can be converged more easily.
Demo procedures

1. Download the demo package and unzip the file to a folder such as C:\Demo\Energy Analysis.
Two files are extracted in the folder namely crude_preheat_train_demo.hsc and energy
analysis demo script.docx
2. Start Aspen HYSYS V8.0 from Start menu

3. Open HYSYS case file crude_preheat_train_demo.hsc. If activated analysis panel is not

displayed, display the panel by clicking Activated Analysis button from Home ribbon.
 4. Click Energy Analysis title to activate energy analysis dashboard. Note if the title is disabled, it
indicates the simulation does not converge. User need to ensure the simulation convergence
first.

5. Click Energy Analysis Options button on the left to set the process parameters for energy
analysis.

Select the parameters as shown below and click OK button at the bottom to update the dashboard.
Here it is worthwhile to mentioning that the table at the bottom is a convenient tool to allow user to set
the utilities for the energy streams defined in the flowsheet. If user selects wrong utilities, warning icon
will show on the table. If user does not specify any utilities, Energy Analysis will automatically select the
utilities based on the temperature and utilities cost information.
 6. Once the energy analysis panel is updated, it is shown as below. This is the energy and
greenhouse gas cost view.

The numbers on the top of the bar are sum of actual heating and cooling cost as well as the actual
carbon emission cost. The cost is calculated based on the actual energy consumption and carbon
emission in the flowsheet and the cost entered for the utilities and carbon fee.

The numbers on the right side of the bar are the target cost calculated by the energy analysis engine
(Aspen Energy Analyzer). The relative differences between the two are displayed in percentage and
shown in large bold number. These percentage values illustrate the energy cost (58%) and carbon cost
saving potentials (71%).

7. Click toggle button to show energy and carbon emission view. Again the numbers on the top
shows the actual heating, cooling in heat flow and carbon emission in mass flow. The numbers
on the right shows the target values correspondingly. The units of measures are consistent with
the simulation unit in Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS.

8. User could also click Saving Potential button to navigate to the Saving Potential form in the
Energy Analysis environment. The Saving Potential form shows the detailed breakdown of each
utility usage and target as well as the cost saving potential.

9. Click pointing down arrow on the energy analysis panel to display the dropdown form. Click
Generate button to automatically generate up to 11 possible changes to the existing heat
exchanger network to explore the energy saving opportunities. Three types of retrofit options
are explored. It might take a minute or so to complete this operation. During this time, the
following mechanism can be explained to the client.

Modify Exchanger – Add additional surface areas to the existing heat exchangers to save
energy. Only one solution is obtained.

Add Exchanger – Add one heat exchanger to the existing heat exchanger network at a
time. This run will provide up to 5 solutions
 Relocate Exchanger – Relocate one existing heat exchanger to a different location at a
time. This run will provide up to 5 solutions.

10. Once retrofit analysis is completed, the table is populated with three rows as shown below. The
first row shows solution summary of modifying exchangers. It adds 8165.4 m2 of new area to
the network to reduce energy by 29.5% and payback is 1.4 years. The second row highlights the
first solution of adding a new exchanger and third row highlights the first solution of relocating
an existing exchangers.

11. Click row heading to access the solution details in Energy Analysis environment. For example, if
user clicks second row of the table, it will take the user to the Scenario 2>add E-100 node in the
energy analysis environment. The solution details are presented on the right side form.
User can select the solution in the second form on the right hand side by selecting the
corresponding radio button. Note the areas (e.g. 7071.6 m2) listed on the first column in the middle
table are the total areas added to the entire network, instead of the areas to the new heat
exchanger.

Note the solution is calculated without actual constraints and that is the reason why total new areas
are huge in the initial solutions. The minimum temperature approach is set as 1 °C and the
maximum new area allowed for each heat exchanger are set as 10000 m2. To refine the solution,
user can pose the constraints on each heat exchanger in the column with blue font.
 12. Enter 800 in Maximum Extra Area and 10 in Minimum Approach Temperature for E-112@TPL1
and click on Update button

As shown in the above form, noticed that E-112@TPL1 new area is reduced to 800 m2 which is the
upper bound of the limits entered. Temperature approach is above the minimum temperature approach
of 10 °C. Using this approach, user can fine tune the solution and reduce the capital cost expenditure at
the expense of energy cost saving. In the background, an equation oriented nonlinear optimizer help to
achieve the optimum trade of between capital cost and energy cost saving.
 13. Select Scenario 1 and Modify Exchangers node. Click Add Exchanger button from the ribbon.

Note this step demonstrate how to make additional changes (e.g. adding a new exchanger E-100) on
top of the previous changes (e.g. modifying exchangers). The solution indicates that a new
exchanger E-100 could be added to possible five locations. The accumulative energy saving with
these two changes are 40% compared to the base simulation case, as shown in the top table.

FAQs

1. Q: How is the targeted values calculated in activated energy analysis in Aspen Plus and Aspen
HYSYS?

A: the targeted values of heating and cooling consumptions are calculated by the pinch analysis from
Aspen Energy Analyzer. As user click to activate energy dashboard, Aspen Energy Analyzer is launched in
the background and “read” the flowsheet data and formulate the energy analysis problem. The results
are then populated back to the energy dashboard once the calculation is completed.

2. Q: Does Activated energy analysis consumes additional token in additional to the token by Aspen
Plus and Aspen HYSYS

A: Yes. It will consume 20 engineering tokens on top of Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS tokens.
3. Q: Why the actual heating and cooling consumptions reported in the energy dashboard are almost
doubled compared to the values reported in simulation?

A: As the data are transferred from simulation to Aspen Energy Analyzer, some heating and cooling
information might be double counted because of the way simulation flowsheet is developed. We
strongly encourage user to utilize hierarchical/subflowsheeting feature in Aspen Plus/Aspen HYSYS to
organize entire heat exchanger network in one hierarchy and subflowsheet, user then only selects the
appropriate the hierarchy or subflowsheet in the Energy Analysis Option dialog.

4. Q: Is there any online training materials available for the activated energy analysis?

A: Yes. There are two computer based training materials namely “Getting Started with Energy Analysis
in Aspen Plus” and “Getting Started with Energy Analysis in Aspen HYSYS” via online training websites of
Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS.

5. Q: Can I enter custom heat exchanger cost correlations in energy analysis?

A: Yes. User can enter the cost correlations in the Setup>Costing tab in Energy Analysis environment.
The cost correlations however need to be in the format of exponential function of new area on the heat
exchanger.

6. Q: Can I make additional modifications (e.g. adding multiple heat exchangers or relocating
multiple heat exchangers) on top of the previous modifications to the heat exchanger network?

A: Yes. Even though retrofit engine only allows user to add or relocate one heat exchanger at a time,
user can still add or relocate more exchangers sequentially in multiple run. Scenario is a great way to
organize the revamping options in Energy Analysis environment. Multiple designs can be created in one
scenario. The energy savings from each design is accumulative to the base simulation case.

7. Q: Why are the new areas required from the initial solutions so large?

A: The initial solution from automatic design is calculated without any constraints, i.e. the maximum
extra area and minimum approach temperature are not constrained during the solution generation. As
a result, the temperature approach of the heat exchanger could be very small. The thought behind is to
generate solutions first and then fine tune the solution later due to the complex mathmetical model.

8. Q: How to control the new area distribution within the heat exchanger network?

A: User can pose the limits in Maximum Extra Area column, or Minimum Approach Temperature column
for each exchanger in the heat exchanger details table. Then click Update button on the top left corner
of the table to regenerate the solution. However, the energy saving could be compromised as more and
more constraints are posed on the heat exchangers.