4.1 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................................................

4.2 GRAND COMPOSITE CURVE ................................................................................................................................ 3

4.2.1 Graphical Representation of the Heat Cascade....................................................................................3

4.2.2 Tabular Construction: Temperature-Interval Diagram (TID) ............................................................7

4.3 UTILITY PLACEMENT : GRAND COMPOSITE CURVE ...................................................................................... 10

4.3.1 Modeling Heating and Cooling Utilities...............................................................................................10

4.3.2 Optimal Utility Placement: Profile Matching......................................................................................12

4.3.2.1 Optimizing Steam-Pressure Levels ....................................................................................................... 13

4.4 SUMMARY............................................................................................................................................................ 18

NOMENCLATURE ....................................................................................................................................................... 20

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................................. 21

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Chapter 4: The Grand Composite Curve

4-1
4.1 Introduction

After identifying the pinch temperature and the minimum heating- and cooling-utility

duties, the next question is how to select appropriate utilities. For this, we construct the grand

composite curve (Section 4.2) and place (or target) utilities according to it (Section 4.3).

Essentially, the grand composite curve displays the net heat-flow characteristics of a process

versus its temperature. This allows us to quickly identify regions where heating and cooling

utilities are required. These utilities include heating utilities like high- and low-pressure steam.

Cooling utilities include cooling water and refrigeration.

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4.2 Grand Composite Curve

The grand composite curve is a graphical representation of the excess heat available to a

process within each temperature interval. In intervals where a net heat surplus exists, we cascade

that heat to lower temperature intervals. Once we have satisfied the demand for heat at lower

temperature intervals, we apply cooling utilities to remove the remaining heat. In intervals where

a net deficit of heat exists, we first use the excess heat from higher temperature intervals. Only

after exhausting heat surpluses from higher temperature intervals, do we apply heating utilities.

4.2.1 Graphical Representation of the Heat Cascade

In this section, we return to Example 2.1 and investigate the flow of heat cascading down

the temperature intervals. Tables 4.1 and 4.2 repeat the shifted stream data (∆Tmin = 20 °C) and

the temperature-interval diagram (TID) for Example 2.1 first seen in Tables 2.2 and 2.9,

respectively.

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 Table 4.1. Shifted stream data for Example 2.1. Temperatures shifted for a

minimum approach temperature of 20 ° C.

Stream Tsupplyi Ttargeti (M& C )

p i ∆ Hi

i (°C) (°C) (kW/°C) (kW)

H1 175 45 20 2600

H2 125 65 40 2400

C1 60 195 30 4050

C2 80 152 15 1080

Figure 2.1 illustrates the temperature intervals of Example 2.1. This figure shows the net

heat deficits (i.e., a negative heat surplus) in temperature intervals 2, 5, 6 and 7. In contrast,

intervals 1, 3, and 4 exhibit net heat surpluses, which are found in the “Net Heat Surplus”

column of Table 4.2. Beginning with the highest temperature interval (T* 8 = 195 °C to T* 7 = 175

°C), we see a heat deficit. Because no net heat surplus exists in higher temperature intervals, we

apply heating utilities (600 kW) to satisfy the net heat deficit within the interval. We see similar

net heat deficits in the next two lower temperature interval (T* 7 = 175 °C to T* 6 = 152 °C, and

T* 6 = 152 °C to T* 5 = 125 °C). Intervals 6 and 5 require heating utilities of 230 and 675 kW,

respectively.

4-4
 Table 4.2. TID for Example 2.1.

Hot Streams Cold Streams

Shifted Heat Cumulative Heat Cumulative Net Heat Cascaded Adjusted
H1 H2 C1 C2
Temperature Surplus Surplus Deficit Deficit Surplus Surplus Surplus
20 kW/°C 40 kW/°C 30 kW/°C 15 kW/°C
(°C) (kW) (kW) (kW) (kW) (kW) (kW) (kW)
45 0 0 -130 1375
300 0 300
60 300 0 -430 1075
100 150 -50
65 400 150 -380 1125
900 450 450
80 1300 600 -830 675
2700 2025 675
125 4000 2625 -1505 0
540 1215 -675
152 4540 3840 -830 675
460 690 -230
175 5000 4530 -600 905
0 600 -600
195 5000 5130 0 1505

4-5
T*8 = 195 ° C

Interval 7
- 600 kW Heat 600 kW

T*7 = 175 ° C

Interval 6
- 230 kW Heat 230 kW

T*6 = 152 ° C

Interval 5
- 675 kW Heat 675 kW

T*5 = 125 ° C Pinch

Interval 4
675 kW

T*4 = 80 ° C

Interval 3
450 kW

T*3 = 65 ° C

Interval 2
- 50 kW

T*2 = 60 ° C

Interval 1
300 kW Heat 1375 kW

T*1 = 45 ° C

Figure 4.1. Cascaded heat for the temperature intervals of Example 2.1. Temperatures
shifted for a minimum approach temperature of 20 ° C.

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 Interval 4 (T* 5 = 125 °C to T* 4 = 80 °C) shows the first net surplus of heat (675 kW). In

the long run, we cannot determine if this heat will satisfy heat deficits at lower temperature

intervals or if cooling utilities will be needed to remove it. For now, we reserve this heat for

lower temperature intervals. Continuing down through the temperature intervals, we accumulate

net heat surpluses and apply them in intervals that exhibit net heat deficits.

Figure 4.1 shows that the net heat deficit within temperature interval 2 (T* 3 = 65 °C to T* 2

= 60 °C) consumes 50 kW of the net surplus of interval 3. The remaining 1375 kW of heat from

intervals 1, 3 and 4 must be removed with cooling utilities.

4.2.2 Tabular Construction: Temperature-Interval Diagram (TID)

The graphical representation of cascaded heats is fairly involved and difficult to

visualize. An alternative approach is to use results already present on the temperature-interval

diagram (TID) to quickly generate the grand composite curve. Here, we repeat the procedure for

generating the data contained in the last two columns of the TID to justify the steps presented in

Section 2.5.3.2. Refer to Table 4.2 for the net heat surplus available within each temperature

interval.

Cascade the net heat surplus starting with zero at the highest temperature-interval

boundary (bottom) in the “Cascaded Surplus” column. This reflects the flow of excess heat from

higher temperature intervals to lower temperature intervals (Section 4.2.1).

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 Place the negative of the minimum (most negative) value from the cascaded heat surplus

column at the bottom temperature-interval boundary in the final column of the TID. Once again,

cascade the net heat surplus starting with that value at the highest temperature-interval boundary

(bottom right). We locate the pinch temperature(s) at the temperatures where zeros are found in

this column, and find the minimum cooling and heating duties at the top (1375 kW) and bottom

(1505 kW) of the last column, respectively.

Figure 4.2 is constructed by plotting the first versus last columns of the TID in Table 4.2.

In the figure, pinch-point temperature(s) are identified where the curve touches the y-axis (i.e., a

value of zero in the last column of Table 4.2). The regions labeled with heating and cooling

utilities require external utilities. Recall that the first and last row of the “Adjusted Surplus”

column in a TID give the minimum cooling- and heating-utility requirements of the process.

The slope of the curve in each region reflects how the process acts. Where the curve has a

positive slope, the process is acting as a net heat sink. Conversely, a negative slope suggests that

the process is acting as a net heat source.

Pockets in the curve represent regions where process-to-process heat exchange is

sufficient (i.e., where a net heat deficit is satisfied by cascaded heat from higher temperature

intervals). Note that process-to-process heat transfer is not limited to these pockets. They simply

reflect where process-to-process heat transfer occurs between streams in different temperature

intervals.

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 225
Minimum Heating-Utility Duty,
1505 kW
200

Positive Slope:
175 Process Acts as a Net Heat Sink

150
Pinch Temperature,
Shifted Temperature (°C)

*
T 5 = 125 °C
125
"Pocket": Self-Sufficient Process-to-Process
Heat Transfer
100

75
Negative Slope:
Process Acts as a Net Heat Source
50

Minimum Cooling-Utility Duty,

25 1375 kW

0
0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750

Enthalpy (kW)
Figure 4.2. Grand composite curve for Example 2.1.

4-9
4.3 Utility Placement: Grand Composite Curve

A key question in chemical process design and retrofit is how to optimally place

(integrate) utility systems (e.g., a steam boiler) into a process flowsheet. To answer this question,

we model the heating and cooling requirements of the process through the hot and cold

composite curves and the grand composite curve. The remaining task is to develop models for

those heating and cooling utilities and to place them with respect to the grand composite curve.

4.3.1 Modeling Heating and Cooling Utilities

In general, we can categorize most heating and cooling utilities as either constant-

temperature (e.g., condensing steam) or variable-temperature (e.g., cooling water) utilities. The

representation of these two types of utilities on the grand composite curve is simple.

Figure 4.3 is the grand composite curve for Example 2.1. Horizontal lines represent

constant-temperature utilities. In the figure, a horizontal line represents high-pressure steam

(condensing at a shifted temperature of 210 °C) on the hot side of the grand composite curve. In

this case, the entire heating needs of the process are satisfied by high-pressure steam. Latter, we

shall see that it is often more thermodynamically efficient to satisfy the heating-utility

requirements by multiple levels of heating utilities (i.e., high- and low-pressure steams).

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 225
High-Pressure Steam Duty,
1505 kW
200

175

150
Pinch Temperature
Shifted Temperature (°C)

*
T 5 = 125 °C
125

"Pocket": Self-Sufficient Process-to-Process Heat

Transfer
100

75

50

25
Cooling-Water Duty,
1375 kW
0
0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750

Enthalpy (kW)
Figure 4.3. Grand composite curve for Example 2.1 with heating and cooling utilities.

4-11
 Sloped lines represent variable-temperature utilities on the grand composite curve. On the

cold side of Figure 4.3, a sloped line represents cooling water. We draw this line from the shifted

cooling-water-supply temperature of 30 °C to the shifted cooling-water-return temperature of

40 °C. The slope of the line is inversely proportional to the capacity flowrate of cooling water:

Q (kW )
[M& C ]  kW 
  = target CW supply
[ ] (4.1)
 °C  TCW − TCW (°C )
p CW

where QCW is the cooling-water duty, and Ttarget CW and Tsupply CW are the cooling-water supply and

target temperatures, respectively. Equation 4.2 gives the mass flowrate of cooling water:

⋅
 kg  QCW (kW )
M CW   = (4.2)
 s 
[
 kJ  target
C p,CW   TCW − TCW
supply
](°C)
 kg 

Note that the cooling utility does not lie within the pocket region of the grand composite

curve. Heat transfer in these regions is accomplished through process-to-process heat exchange.

4.3.2 Optimal Utility Placement: Profile Matching

In this section, we apply the grand composite curve to answer questions like:

• When multiple steam levels are available, how do we optimize their use in a process?

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 • Can the process generate very-low pressure steam? How can the process be applied as

a preheat for this steam?

4.3.2.1 Optimizing Steam-Pressure Levels

Figure 4.4 illustrates a grand composite curve as an example of utility selection according

to the following “profile matching” heuristic. We choose the utility levels such that their

placement matches the grand composite curve as closely as possible. We prefer to use heating

utilities at the lowest temperature levels, and cooling utilities at the highest temperature levels. In

the figure, steam is available at three levels: 180, 200 and 230 °C (shifted temperatures). First,

Figure 4.4a ignores our heuristic and accomplishes the total heating requirements of the process

with very-high-pressure steam. This arrangement is certainly the least complex method for

heating the process, however, we may wish to reduce operating costs (i.e., use less expensive

high-pressure and low-pressure steam where applicable) at the expense of greater capital costs

(i.e., an increase in complexity). Figure 4.4b illustrates the case where both very-high-pressure

(VHP) and high-pressure (HP) steam are employed. Finally, in Figure 4.4c, we follow our

heuristic by utilizing the greatest amount of steam at the lowest temperature available, 180 °C.

Note that the hashed region represents self-sufficient process-to-process heat exchange, and does

not require steam. Continuing up the grand composite curve, we apply steam at 200 °C and

finally at 230 °C.

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 VHP Steam VHP Steam

HP Steam
Temperature (°C)

Temperature ( °C)
Pinch Pinch

Enthalpy (kW) Enthalpy (kW)

(a) (b)

VHP Steam

HP Steam

LP Steam
Temperature ( °C)

Pinch

Enthalpy (kW)

(c)

Figure 4.4. Grand composite curves with three degrees of profile matching. Operating costs
decrease and capital costs increase from (a) to (c).

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4.3.2.2 Raising Steam from Boiler Feedwater

In contrast to the previous section, we raise steam from boiler feedwater at the highest

possible temperature. Figure 4.5 illustrates the same grand composite curve.

We may utilize the surplus heat of the process to raise low-pressure steam from boiler

feedwater. Figure 4.5 displays two line segments. The first segment (sloped) represents the

sensible heat used for preheating the boiler feedwater. The capacity flowrate of the boiler

feedwater is related to the inverse of the slope of this segment through Equation 4.3.

Q (kW )
[M& C ]  kW 
  = target BF supply
[ ] (4.3)
 °C  TBF − TBF (°C )
p BF

where QBF is the heat absorbed as sensible heating of the boiler feedwater, and Ttarget BF

and Tsupply BF are the target and supply temperatures of the boiler feedwater, respectively. The

⋅
mass flowrate of the boiler feedwater consumed or the steam produced is, M BF :

⋅
 kg  ⋅  kg  Q BF (kW )
M BF   = M LP   = (4.4)
 s   s 
[
 kJ  target
C p,BF   TBF − TBF ]
supply
(°C)
 
kg

4-15
 HP Steam

Temperature (°C)
Pinch

TtargetBF

Ts upplyBF

LP Steam Duty,
QL P Boiler-Feedwater Duty,
Q BF
Cooling Water

Enthalpy (kW)

Figure 4.5. Grand composite curves where two qualities of very-low-pressure steam
are generated.

4-16
where Cp,BF is the heat capacity of the boiler feedwater. The second segment (horizontal)

corresponds to the latent heat of vaporization of the boiler feedwater. We relate the length of this

segment to the flowrate of the boiler feedwater consumed or the steam produced) through

Equation 4.5:

& LP  kg ÄH VAP  kJ 

Q LP (kW ) = M BF  kg  (4.5)
 s   

where ∆HvapBF is the latent heat of vaporization of boiler feedwater at the temperature and

pressure we are generating steam. In this case, the remaining surplus heat of the process is

rejected to cooling water (see Section 4.3.2.3).

4-17
4.4 Summary

• To select appropriate utilities, we construct the grand composite curve (Section 4.2) and

place (or target) utilities according to it (Section 4.3). Utilities include heating utilities like

high- and low-pressure steams and cooling utilities such as cooling water and refrigeration.

• The grand composite curve displays the net heat-flow characteristics of a process versus its

temperature. This allows us to quickly identify regions where heating and cooling utilities are

required.

• We construct the grand composite curve by plotting the first versus last columns of the

temperature-interval diagram (TID). In the figure, pinch-point temperature(s) are identified

where the curve touches the y-axis (i.e., a value of zero in the last column of the TID).

• Heating and cooling utilities can be categorized as either constant-temperature (e.g.,

condensing steam) or variable-temperature (e.g., cooling water) utilities. We represent

constant- and variable-temperature utilities as horizontal and sloped lines, respectively.

• Utilities do not lie within the pocket regions of the grand composite curve. Heat transfer in

these regions is accomplished through process-to-process heat exchange without external

utilities.

4-18
• Generally, we use heating and cooling utilities at the lowest and highest temperature levels

possible, respectively.

4-19
Nomenclature

QBF Boiler-feedwater (preheat) duty, kW

QCU Minimum cooling-utility duty, kW

QCW Cooling-water duty, kW

QLP Low-pressure steam duty, kW

QHP High-pressure steam duty, kW

QHU Minimum heating-utility duty, kW

Tsupply BF Supply temperature of boiler feedwater, °C

Tsupply CW Supply temperature of cooling water, °C

Tsupply i Supply temperature of process stream i, °C

Ttarget BF Supply temperature of boiler feedwater, °C

Ttarget CW Supply temperature of cooling water, °C

Ttarget i Supply temperature of process stream i, °C

T* k Shifted temperature of temperature-interval boundary k, °C

∆Hi Duty of process stream i, kW

∆HvapBF Latent heat of vaporization of boiler feedwater, kJ/kg

4-20
References

Linnhoff, B., Townsend, D. W., Boland, D., et al., "A User Guide to Process Integration for the

Efficient Use of Energy," IChemE UK (1982).

Shenoy, U. V., Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis: Process Optimization by Energy and

Resource Analysis, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston (1995).

Smith, R., Chemical Process Design, McGraw-Hill, New York (1995).

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