Basic Elements of Pinch

Technology
Under the guidance of

Presented by

Mr. Umesh Chandra Sharma

Rajat Kumar Sonkar

Chemical Engineering
Department

CSJMA12001390208

Contents

What is PINCH TECHNOLOGY ?

Principle of Pinch Technology
Significance of Pinch Technology
Objectives of Pinch Analysis
Traditional vs. Pinch approach
Energy & Water Saving Potential of Pinch Technology
Steps of Pinch Technology Explanation
Areas of Applications of Pinch Technology
Alternatives Of Pinch Technology
Conclusion

What is PINCH TECHNOLOGY ?

The term Pinch Technology was introduced by Linnhoff
and Vredeveld in year 1978 to represent a new set of
thermodynamically based methods that guarantee
minimum energy levels in design of heat exchanger
networks.
Pinch technology is a state of the technique for design of
energy efficient processing plants.
Pinch Technique is used to compute the theoretical
minimum utility consumption for a process based on
thermal data process stream.
Pinch point is defined as the temperature where the net
deficit or surplus is zero.

Principle of Pinch Technology

Pinch Technology is a thermodynamically based method
specifically using the First and the Second law of
thermodynamics.
First law of thermodynamics helps to calculate the
enthalpy of the various streams in the process.
Second law of thermodynamics is used to determine
the direction of heat flow.

Significance of Pinch Technology

The three basic significance of pinch technology are
No external cooling above the pinch temperature
No external heating below the pinch temperature
No heat transfer between the process stream
across the pinch temperature
Violation of any of them will lead to higher energy than
theoretical minimum requirements and will adversely
affect the energy efficiency.

Objectives of Pinch Analysis

To match cold and hot process streams with a network
of exchangers so that demands for externally supplied
utilities are minimized.
The prime objective of pinch analysis is to achieve
financial savings by better process heat
integration .

Traditional vs Pinch approach

Traditional
approach

Heat
Exchange
System

Design of
Core Process

Utility
System

Pinch approach

Heat
Exchange
System

et
g
r
Ta

Design of
Core Process
Target

Ta
rg
et

Utility
System

Potential energy savings in some major

industrial sectors

Potential water consumption savings in some

major industrial sectors

Brief Outline Of The Process

1
2
3
4
5

Identification of Hot and Cold

Streams
The first step involves the determination of the various hot
and cold streams present in the process.
The identification of the various streams involves
determining:
The supply temperature of the streams
The temperature to which the streams have to
heated/cooled i.e. the target temperature
The specific heat capacity of the streams and the heat
capacity flow rate
The enthalpy change of each stream

Typical Stream Data

Stream Stream
Numbe Name
r
1
Feed
2

3
4

Supply
Temp
C
60

Target
Temp
C
205

Heat Capacity
Flow
Kw/C
20

Enthalpy
Change
Kw
2900

Reacto
r
out
Produc
t

270

160

18

1980

220

70

35

5250

Recycl
e

160

210

50

2500

Find the value of DTmin

DTmin is the minimum temperature difference between
the stream temperature profiles.
A lower value DTmin implies that the temperature
difference between the streams is low and hence a very
large area of heat exchanger is required for the heat
exchange which increases the capital cost.
A higher value of DTmin implies that a larger quantity of
utility is required for heating/cooling which increases the
energy cost.
Thus we need to choose an optimum value of DTmin for a
process.

Typical Value of DTmin for various industries are

Sr. No.

Industrial Sector

Oil Refining

Experience Dtmin
value
20-40C

Petrochemical

10-20C

Other Chemical

10-20C

Low Temp. Process

3-5C

Composite Curves
For composite curve,
we first plot the
temperature enthalpy
diagrams for all the hot
and cold streams. The
slope of the curves is
CP i.e the heat capacity
flow rate of the stream.
To draw the hot
composite curve we
simply add the slopes
of the hot streams i.e.
the values of CP for all

The following diagram depicts how a combined composite

curve consisting of both curves the hot composite curve
and the cold composite curve looks like:

Shifted Composite Curve

For this we carry out the following changes to the
temperatures of the hot and cold composite curves:
For hot streams = Tact- Dtmin/2
For cold streams = Tact+ Dtmin/2
Carrying out the above changes and re-plotting the
curves gives us the shifted composite curve.

Grand Composite Curve

The final step of the process is to construct the grand
composite curve.
The curve is constructed by simply subtracting the
enthalpies of the shifted cold and hot composite curves
and plotting the enthalpy differences v/s temperature.
The following is a diagram showing how a grand
composite curve looks like

Areas of Applications of Pinch

Technology
Applications (equipment-wise) In the Indian sector
include:
companies like:
Heat exchangers
IPCL
Distillation columns
Reliance
Evaporators
Indian Oil
Refrigeration systems
Hindustan Petroleum
Applications (industry-wise) include:
Some of the international
Petrochemicals
companies are:
Petroleum
Cadbury
Bulk chemicals
British Steel
Pulp and paper
Shell Oil
Sugar
Food processing
Pennzoil
Procter And Gamble

Alternatives of Pinch
Technology

MILP/MINLP Approach,

State-Space Approach,

Genetic Algorithm Approach,

Process Graph Theory Approach,

Super targeting Approach

Conclusion
To summarize pinch technology offers a systematic
approach for saving cost and reducing energy
consumption.
The technology helps to cut down utility requirement as
well as its cost. It thus provides an alternative to use of
various other energy resources such as heating oil or
other fuels which are used as utilities and are scarce.
Although the initial cost for carrying out the analysis
and implementing the changes may be high but the
long run benefit is more than sufficient to cover it.

References
R K Sinnot Coulson & Richardson Chemical Engineering Design 4
Edition, R K Sinnot, pg111-126.
Cost Minimization And Energy Recovery Using Pinch Technology,
Dr. Akansha Mahajan.
Using Pinch Analysis to Optimize the Heat Exchanger Network of a
Regenerative Rankine Cycle for an Existing Modern Nuclear Power
Plant, Stephanie Barnes
Introduction to Pinch Technology, Linnhoff March www.
linnhoffmarch.com

Thank
You