Work and heat integration—A new field in process synthesis and process systems engineering

The extension from heat integration and design of heat exchanger networks (HENs) to including heating, cooling, and power effects from pressure changing equipment has been referred to as work and heat integration and design of work and heat exchange networks (WHENs). This is an emerging research area in Process Synthesis and Process Systems Engineering, and WHENs represent a considerably more complex design task than HENs. A key challenge is the fact that temperature changes and pressure changes of process streams are interacting. Changes in inlet temperature to compressors and expanders resulting from heat integration will influence work consumption and production. Likewise, pressure changes by compression and expansion will change the temperatures of process streams, thus affecting heat integration. The state‐of‐the‐art of this new research area including insight, methodologies, tools, opportunities, challenges, and literature is presented. Key aspects are illustrated by simple examples, whereas smaller case studies indicate potentials for industrial applications. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 65: e16477 2019