Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis

Practical Considerations
Pinch analysis is a systematic method
to maximize energy recovery from
process streams entering and
exiting process equipment. Using
this method, the minimum thermodynamic requirements for hot and
cold utilities can be calculated for a
process. This is useful to determine
areas where savings can be realized and where savings are not
available. It is a method that can be
used during the design of a process
or after startup. During the design
phase, it is useful to set the temperatures of hot and cold utilities and the
load requirements of those utilities.
After startup, it can be used to take
advantage of changing utility costs,
or if a proper pinch analysis was
not performed initially, it can be
used to find and correct inefficiencies in the heat recovery. Practical
considerations to using these techniques effectively will be illustrated
in this article.

Introduction to
Pinch Analysis
Pinch analysis uses a temperatureenthalpy diagram (T/H diagram)
to plot the hot and cold streams
from the process and the temperatures where they are available. The
benefit of this method is that multiple
hot and cold streams can be plotted
on the T/H diagram and be represented by a single hot stream and
a single cold stream. This is called
a Composite Curve. A Composite
Curve is developed by compiling
the temperature ranges, flow rates,
and heat capacity of the individual
streams. This is illustrated in Figures
1 and 2.Composite Curves show
where the minimum temperature

By Richard Beaman, PE, and Cliff Reese, PE, SSOE Group

Figur e 1

approach, between the hot and cold

streams, is located. This is known
as the pinch point. The composite
curve also shows how much external hot and cold energy the utilities
must provide. This method shows the
minimum utility temperature required
to achieve the necessary heat and
the maximum utility temperature to
achieve the necessary coldness.
A Composite Curve is developed
from knowledge of the temperature
ranges, the flowrates, and heat
capacity of the individual streams.
This is illustrated in Figures 1 & 2.
The following analysis technique can
be used for simple heat exchanger
networks (single hot or cold streams)
or complex heat exchanger networks
for the streams that need hot or
cold utilities. For the complex heat
exchanger networks, after all of the
process streams are integrated into
an efficient network, there may be
a few streams that require one or

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Common terms used

in pinch analysis are:
Hot Stream: Any stream that needs
to be cooled.
Cold Stream: Any stream that needs
to be heated.
Pinch Temperature: The minimum
temperature difference (approach)
between the hot streams and the
cold streams.
Flowing Heat Capacity Definition
(CP): CP = m x CP
Composite Curve: The sum of the
flowing heat capacity of all of
the hot or cold streams, over the
temperature range of the streams.
Outlet Temperature: The desired
or required outlet temperature of
the stream.

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Pinch Temperature
Selection

F i g u re 2

One other item that needs to be discussed is how the pinch temperature
was determined. Where does that
number come from? In the training
materials I have read, the choice of
pinch temperature is usually rather
vague. Materials often mention that
it is the best temperature that the
heat exchanger network can obtain
for this type of process. In order to
help quantify the pinch temperature,
it is useful to take the following
relationships into account. The
basis of the pinch temperature is
the following heat transfer equation:
Q = U0 x A x LMTD
more utilities in order to achieve the
desired outlet temperatures. If you
take each of these streams separately and plot the Composite Curves
for that stream and the section of the
streams that transfer heat to or from
it, you will create a simplified network that is far easier to apply the
following techniques to. There are
a number of articles and resources
available that go into detail on
creating the Heat Exchanger
Networks (see references 1, 2, 3).

Pinch Analysis Example

There are two features of this process worth noting. The hot stream
enters warmer than the desired cold
stream outlet, and the cold stream
enters colder than the desired hot
stream outlet. The implication of this
is that it is not necessary to have
the hot utility above the desired
cold stream outlet temperature and
conversely, the cold utility does not
need to be below the desired hot
stream outlet.

Where:
Q = the duty of the heat exchanger.
U0 = the overall heat
transfer coefficient.
A = the heat exchanger
heat transfer surface area.
LMTD = the Log Mean
Temperature Difference.
In this equation, minimizing the
pinch temperature increases the
heat recovery (Q) from the process.

Figur e 3

In Figure 3, you will see two

Composite Curves which depict the
hot and cold utility requirements
are 42 MBTU/hr and 114 MBTU/
hr, respectively. It has a 20F pinch
temperature. One thing to note is
that only the process streams are
plotted. The reasoning is that we
want to make adjustments to the
process, by adding or rearranging
heat exchangers, in order to exploit
the energy inventory in the process
streams before adding energy
(hot or cold) via utilities.

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Minimizing the pinch temperature

will decrease the LMTD, so in order
to increase the duty (Q) we need to
provide additional surface area (A).
In this example, it is assumed that
the overall heat transfer coefficient
stays relatively constant, because
trying to increase the overall heat
transfer coefficient usually requires
increasing the fluid velocities, which
increases the pressure drop. Often
this pressure drop is not available
due to compressor or pump limitations. It is the overall heat transfer

coefficient that is used to determine

whether to use a small or large
Pinch Temperature. Therefore, it is
necessary to have a good knowledge of the process. If the process
heat exchangers have small overall
heat transfer coefficients near the
pinch point, such as for vapor/
vapor heat exchangers, then it will
require a lot of extra surface area
per extra BTU desired, thereby
increasing the capital requirements
significantly. However, if the overall
heat transfer coefficients are large

F i g u re 4

Unop*mized U*li*es UnshiCed Composite Curve

300

Hot U4lity Duty =

42 MBTU/hr

Temperature (F)

250

200

150

100

50

0
0

100

200

300

Cold U4lity Duty =

114 MBTU/hr

400

500

600

700

800

900

Heat Duty (MBTU/hr)

F i g u re 5

1000

near the pinch point, then a smaller

pinch temperature can be used,
requiring less surface area per BTU
than in the case of the low overall
heat transfer coefficient. The above
overall heat transfer coefficient relationship must be used in conjunction
with the size of the potential utility
duty savings. If the potential utility
savings are small, there typically
isnt enough savings to justify
much capital expenditure for
heat exchangers and piping.
Someone not familiar with pinch
analysis would be tempted to add
the utilities at the end of the hot
and cold curves in order to match
the end point temperatures. Their
solution might look similar to Figure
4. A novice at pinch analysis would
know that the utilities could be
added at a lower temperature, but
might not know how to determine
the optimum temperatures.
In order to find the optimum
solution, you need to re-plot the
Composite Curve as a Shifted
Composite Curve. This is accomplished by subtracting one half of
the pinch temperature from the hot
Composite Curve temperatures
and adding one half of the pinch
temperature to the cold Composite
Curve temperatures. The resulting
plot is shown in Figure 5. This plot
shows that the hot and cold utility
requirements have not changed,
but at the pinch point, the curves
now touch. This is mainly done to
allow the curves to be re-plotted in
a different form, to create a Grand
Composite Curve.
The Grand Composite Curve is
created by subtracting the hot curve
duties from the cold curve duties at
each temperature. Where there is
no cold line to subtract the hot duty
from, use the duty at the end point
of the cold curve. Re-plotting the
curve in this manner produces a plot
as shown in Figure 6. As pointed
out earlier, the hot stream inlet is

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

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enough heat or cold could be

added to obtain the desired
temperatures at the stream outlets.
Inserting the utilities into the Shifted
Composite Curve yields the curve
shown in Figure 7. Shown on the
curve are the original process pinch
point, three new process pinch
points, and two utility pinch points.
The addition of the new process
pinch point at the very cold end
of the Composite Curves is the

result of both optimizing the utility

temperatures and having the shifted
cold end temperatures being equal
(the required hot outlet and the
cold inlet temperatures were only
different by the pinch temperature).
The other two new pinch points
are created by the procedure used
with the Grand Composite Curve,
shown in Figure 6. In other words,
the procedure minimizes the utility
temperatures by creating additional
pinch points.

Figur e 7

ShiCed Op*mized U*li*es Curve

300

250

Shiked Temperature (F)

hotter than the required cold stream

outlet temperature and the cold stream
inlet is colder than the required hot
stream outlet. These traits produce
a Grand Composite Curve that
doubles back toward the Y-axis.
This allows us to use the graph to
easily find the optimum temperature
needed for the utilities. This is
accomplished by drawing a line
from the endpoint of each branch
of the curve back up or down to the
adjacent leg of the curve and then
over to the Y axis. This gives the
shifted temperature of the utility
required to achieve the desired
process outlet temperature. The
actual temperature required would
be the shifted temperature plus one
half of the pinch temperature for
the hot utility, and minus one half
of the pinch temperature for the
cold utility. This shows that the heat
source for this example only needs
to be ~159F vs. 275F. The cold
utility should be ~65F vs. 4F. A
utility at 65F is usually much cheaper to obtain than one at 4F, which
requires a refrigeration system. If
you choose a colder hot utility or a
warmer cold utility, you would find
that the process would pinch before

Process Pinch
Points

200

Hot U4lity
at 159F

150

U4lity Pinch
Points

100

50

Cold U4lity
at 65F

0
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Heat Duty (MBTU/hr)

Figur e 6

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

The above procedure assumes that

the utility would use the same pinch
temperature as the process pinch
temperature. Often this would be
the case. However, as mentioned
earlier, having a good working
knowledge of the process may
allow the utility to use a different
pinch temperature. For example,
if the process pinches at a vapor/
vapor portion of the process, where
the overall heat transfer coefficient
would be relatively small, and you
have a utility where a high overall
heat transfer coefficient could be
obtained (i.e. a steam heater or
cooling water utility), then you could
use a smaller Utility Pinch Temperature. This would shift the utility curve

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up (for a cold utility) or down (for

a hot utility) and when plotted on
a Shifter Composite Curve, would
actually cross the other stream.
Plotting the Un-shifted Composite
Curve would show that we are not
creating a real temperature cross
in the heat exchanger. This will be
illustrated in a later example.

For illustrative purposes, the Grand

Composite Curve can be re-plotted
with the utilities to show the impact
of adding the utilities at the minimum
temperature levels. This step does
not need to be done as part of the
Pinch Analysis.

F i g u re 8

Shiked Temperature (F)

250

Pinch
Points

Hot U4lity at 159F

150

100

50

Cold U4lity at 65F

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

In Figure 3, we used a 20F pinch

temperature, which is a fairly easy
target to hit. If we were to change
the Pinch Temperature and perform
a sensitivity analysis to determine
how the utility duties vary as a
function of the Pinch Temperature,
an interesting result would appear.
When the Pinch Temperature drops
to 10F, the hot utility duty drops to
zero. This is shown in Figure 9.
In this case, because there is no
longer a hot utility requirement, we
do not need to add the hot utility
heat exchanger nor the associated
equipment (i.e. steam traps), piping,
and control systems. This could save
a significant amount of capital,
which could be used to pay for the
additional heat transfer surface area
required for a tighter pinch point. In
addition, you would no longer be
required to pay for the energy costs
for this heat.

Op*mized U*li*es Grand Composite Curve

300

200

Additional
Optimization Step

90

100

110

Heat Duty (MBTU/hr)

F i g u re 9

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

120

If we re-plot the Grand Composite

Curve, and plot the line from the
cold tail of the curve up to the
warmer part of the curve and over
to the shifter temperature axis,
we find that the minimum shifted
temperature (temperature of the cold
utility) has risen from 75F to 85F.
After adjusting the shifted temperature back to un-shifted temperatures,
the cold utility requirement has gone
from 65F to 80F, which takes us
from a refrigerated cooling source
to cooling tower water. This would
save the cost of a refrigeration
system at the cost of a cooling tower
for a significant capital savings. In
addition, the cost of operating a
cooling tower is significantly less
than operating a chiller system.

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F i g u re 10

Figur e 11

Cost Analysis

Annual Cost ($/yr)

To illustrate the effect of this shift

from 20F to 10F in Pinch Temperature, we would typically see a cost
vs. temperature relationship similar
to Figure 11. This shows that as
the pinch temperature decreases
and the energy costs decrease, the
capital cost and total cost increase,
usually rising sharply as the pinch
temperature decreases toward very
small values. However, in the case
being examined here, there is a
discontinuity (or two). When the hot
utility disappears, there is a sharp
drop in the capital costs required.
And, when the cold utility switches
from a refrigerated system to cooling water, both the capital cost and
the energy costs drop sharply. This
is illustrated in Figure 12. As can
be seen, the total savings can potentially be more than enough to pay
for the cost of additional surface
area that would be required for
the tighter 10F Pinch Temperature.
Therefore, it can be very useful to
analyze the system to see if a utility
can be eliminated or switched to a
cheaper utility.

Total Cost
Energy Cost

Capital Cost

T (Pinch Point)

Figur e 12

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

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As is probably obvious, the

preceding example was contrived
to illustrate some very useful
techniques developed as part of
Pinch Analysis. Figure 13 depicts
an actual process in which Pinch
Analysis can be applied. The
process is a simple condensation
of a liquid from a non-condensable
gas stream. The vapor inlet is above
the dew point until about three
quarters of the way through the
feed/product interchanger. The
condenser is cooled by -68F
refrigerant (low temperature) and
the condensed liquid is used in a
different cooling application and is
therefore not available to pre-cool
the vapor inlet stream. The desired
hot stream outlet temperature is -60F.

Figur e 14

Process Only Composite Curve

110
100
90

23F Pinch

80
70
60
50

Temperature (F)

Real World Example

40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

Heat Duty (btu/hr)

Figur e 13

The Composite Curve is shown in

Figure 14. It has a 23F pinch point
at the warm vapor inlet and requires
~10,000 BTU/hr refrigerant duty at
-68F. This is known as a threshold
problem, because the pinch is at
the end of the Composite Curves,
instead of the middle as is typical.

Optimized Process Flow Diagram

Refrigerant
Outlet

Hot Process Stream

Condensed Liquid
Cold Process Stream
Refrigerant Inlet (-68oF)

Figur e 15

Process Only ShiCed Composite Curve

100
90
80
70

Shiked Temperature (F)

60

23F Pinch

50
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
0

5,000

10,000

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

15,000

20,000

25,000

Heat Duty (BTU/hr)

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30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

However, since we know that the

dew point is about 4F and we can
split the cold stream into two parts
at the high temperature refrigerant
temperature, we can use a different
pinch temperature. This is because
we know that below the dew point,
we will be condensing liquids out
of the gas and we will usually have
a higher Overall Heat Transfer
Coefficient (Uo). Therefore, we can
try using a smaller pinch temperature, say 15F. In addition, because
we can get an even higher heat
transfer coefficient in the refrigerant
evaporator, due to the boiling
refrigerant, we will use a Utility

Pinch Point of 8F. In order to do

this, we need to make an adjustment
to the high temperature refrigerant
shifted temperature. The shifted
refrigerant line we will use on the
15F Grand Composite Curve
will be:

-28F Refrigerant Temperature +

* Process Pinch Difference in
Pinch Temperatures
-28F + * 15F (15F 8F) =
-27.5F Low Temperature Refrigerant
Shifted Temperature

Figur e 16

Figur e 17

Process Only Shi$ed Composite Curve

15F Pinch

110
100
90
80
70

Shi$ed Temperature (F)

If we now plot the Shifted Composite

Curve (Figure 15) and then re-plot
it as a Grand Composite Curve
(Figure 16), we see that the curves
are quite different from the previous
examples. The Grand Composite
Curve is different in that the curve
does not turn back on itself, so we
cannot find a utility temperature that
eliminates the refrigerant at -68F.
However, there are some things we
can do. In this particular process,
there is also a refrigeration system
operating at -20F (high temperature). This is useful because the
-68F refrigeration system uses 6
HP per ton of refrigeration and the
-20F system uses only 4 HP per ton
of refrigeration. So, we can plot the
shifted refrigerant temperature on
the Grand Composite Curve and
determine how much low temperature refrigeration duty we can save.
As the graph shows, by following
the -16.5F shifted temperature line
(-28F + 1/2 of the shift temperature
= -16.5F) to the Grand Composite
Curve, we see that we can save
approximately 2,500 BTU/hr of the
low temperature refrigeration duty
by using some high temperature
refrigeration duty.

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

Heat Duty (btu/hr)

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

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30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

By re-plotting the Shifted Composite

Curve and the Grand Composite
Curve we get Figures 17 and 18.
We see that the hot and cold
Composite Curves have separated
and the Grand Composite Curve
now has a slightly different shape.

By adjusting the Pinch Temperature

from 23F to 15F and using a
tighter Utility Pinch Temperature, we
have increased the shift of duty from
~2,500 BTU/hr to ~4,500 BTU/hr
for an 80% increase in duty shifted
to the high temperature refrigerant.

The re-plotted Shifted Composite

Curve with this new Pinch Point is
shown in Figure 19.

F i g u re 18

Figur e 19

ShiCed Composite Curve Process Only

120
100

23F Pinch
Shiked Temperature (F)

80
60
40
20
0

15F Pinch

-20
-40
-60
-80
0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

Duty (BTU/hr)

Energy Optimization Using Pinch Analysis: Practical Considerations

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35000

40000

45000

F i g u re 20

References

Op*mized Composite Curve

120

1. R
 ossiter, A. P., Improve Energy
Efficiency via Heat Integration,
Chemical Engineering Progress,
pp. 33-42 (Dec. 2010).

100

Process Pinches
80

Temperature (F)

60

2. R
 ed Vector; Online Education,
Chemical Engineering: Pinch
Technology.

40
20
0

3. R
 ossiter, A. P.,Introduction to
Pinch Analysis; Including a
Retrofit Case Study, AIChE
Webinar, 2011.

-20

U4lity Pinches
-40
-60
-80
0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

For more information

contact Rick Beaman at
[email protected]

45000

Heat Duty (BTU/hr)

By adding the refrigerant lines to the

composite Curve, we get the curve
shown in Figure 20. This curve
shows that we have our original
23F process Pinch Point at the
warm end of the curves, where
we are exchanging heat between
two vapor streams, a new 15F
process Pinch Point in the condensing region, and two 8F utility Pinch
Points, one at each refrigerant
temperature level. It also shows that
we have shifted about 45% of the
low temperature refrigerant duty to
the high temperature refrigeration
system.
In addition, if this were a retrofit of
an existing process, we would reuse
the feed/product interchanger,
which would now have a smaller
duty. This would result in obtaining
a smaller pinch temperature at the
warm end of the Composite Curve,
because the exchanger would now
have excess surface area.
The resulting process would look like
Figure 21, where a new refrigerant
evaporator and a new, small feed/
product heat exchanger have been
added.

Figur e 21

Optimized Process Flow Diagram

Cold Process Stream

Refrigerant Outlet

Refrigerant Outlet

Hot Process Stream

Condensed Liquid

Refrigerant Inlet (-28 F)

Refrigerant Inlet (-68 F)

In summary, the following points

will help you further minimize your
utility usage:
P
 erform

a full Pinch Analysis and

develop your heat exchanger
network on your process streams.
Then perform a localized Pinch
Analysis on each stream that
requires utilities in order to achieve
the desired outlet temperatures.

K
 now

your process, so that you

have an idea of what the heat
transfer coefficients (Uo) are
and the order of magnitude of
the possible duty reductions,
in order to pick a proper Pinch
Temperature(s).

making clients successful by saving them time, trouble, and money

Condensed
Liquid
o

Know

your utilities temperatures

and available loads.

Plot

and perform the Pinch Analysis

on the Composite Curves, Shifted
Composite Curves, and the Grand
Composite Curves for the process
streams only, to maximize process
stream energy utilization.

Look

for opportunities to eliminate

utilities by adjusting the Pinch
Temperature.

Look

for opportunities to use lower

energy utilities (cooler hot utilities
and warmer cold utilities).

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