Automatic generation of multiperiod heat exchanger network configurations

Abstract This paper presents an extension of the procedure proposed by Floudas and Grossman for the synthesis of heat exchanger networks under multiperiod operation. It is shown that the automatic synthesis of these networks can be performed by a nonlinear programming formulation that is based on a superstructure representation that includes all possible structural options for a given set of matches that are predicted for different time periods. A graph representation is proposed for this superstructure to account for the changes in pinch points and to reduce the size of the nonlinear program. Two example problems are presented to illustrate this procedure.