Ratan Sikdar
Mechanical engineering
September 2025
Design and optimization of Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) helps in increasing thermal efficiency and lowering operating cost in industrial systems and this is what this research is all about. A mixed approach of methodology was used where graphical, like pinch analysis, tools were combined with mathematical tools like Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP). The base case configuration with low resurgence of heat and high cost of utility was redesigned on simulation tools such as MATLAB, Aspen HYSYS and GAMS. The optimized network has heat recovery at 89 percent thus, savings of the Total Annual Cost (TAC) showed a 30 percent decrease and utility bills were minimized by 38 percent although there was a small rise in the number of exchangers. To support this further sensitivity analysis of minimum temperature difference ( 0 T 0 ) clearly showed that 10 o C approach is the best trade-off between the capital cost of investment and the cost saved on utilities. The study offers an affordable and scalable solution to the integration of energy in the real world in a manner that is sustainable to the functioning of industries.
700- 714
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