Chemical reactors energy integration through virtual heat exchangers—benefits and drawbacks V. Lavric a, * ,V.Ples ßu a ,J.DeRuyck b a University Politehnica of Bucharest, Chemical Engineering Department/CTTIP, Building A, Room 056, RO-011061 Polizu 1-7, Bucharest, Romania b Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Mechanical Engineering Department, Building Z, Room zw108 Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Received 10 February 2004; accepted 20 June 2004 Available online 7 October 2004 Abstract The pinch analysis (PA)conceptÕsmaindrawbackisthatitissuboptimalsinceitdisregardsthechemical reactorsnetwork(CRN)contributiontothetotalflowsheetentropygeneration,asitdoeswiththesepara- tiontrains,ifany.The chemical reactors energy integration (CREI) through virtual heat exchangers (VHE) emergedandbecame,duringitscrystallisationperiod,anexpansionoftheclassicalPA,allowingtheCRN tobeseenaspartoftheheatexchangersnetwork(HEN),perhapsleadingtoabetterdecreaseinthetotal entropyproductionboththroughtheinclusionofCRNsourcesandsinksintotheHENtopology,andthe improvementofthereactorsoperatingconditions,whilepreservingtheirperformance,intermsofchemical transformation. Throughout the considered case study, two-bed methanol synthesis heat integrated reactor, the benefits and the drawbacks of the CREI will be emphasized. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Processintegration;Entropyreduction;Processmodelingandsimulation;Pinchanalysis;Chemicalreactors energy integration; Virtual heat exchangers 1359-4311/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2004.06.026 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +40 2121 25125. E-mail address: v_lavric@chim.upb.ro (V. Lavric). www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 1033–1044