A tool for optimal synthesis of industrial refrigeration systems

摘要

A method for selecting the best refrigerants and the optimal configurations of the refrigeration system starting with the definition of the refrigeration requirements of a process is presented. The method proceeds in three steps: 1) identifying the most important temperature levels using an exergy minimisation method, 2) identifying the most suitable refrigerants to be used to generate a refrigeration system superstructure, 3) using MILP optimisation extract a set of refrigeration system configurations including compressors and heat exchangers characterisation to obtain the complete list of streams to be considered for the Heat Exchanger Network design (fourth step of the method not treated here).