Integrated process design for improved energy efficiency

The efficiency with which energy and raw materials are used within the 7process industries depends strongly on the way in which resources are distributed within a manufacturing site. Most sites or processes contain several sources or sinks of the resource. For example, a chemical plant will have heat sources (hot streams) and heat sinks (cold streams). By matching these sources and sinks in the appropriate manner we can transfer heat between the streams. We thus develop a more integrated process design, which makes better use of the resources available internally, and therefore reduces the amount of external resource that is required. The techniques for integrated design of processes can be applied to a range of problems, for example, recovery of process waste heat, reduction of water usage (which reduces the consumption of heat in treating fresh water and waste water), reduction of chemicals use, etc. In all cases, the overall result is a considerable saving in energy.