Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Maximum Recovery Of Mechanical Energy Through Work Integration: A Work Exchange Network Synthesis Approach, Aida Amini Rankouhi

Wayne State University Dissertations

Sustainable development has become a key concern in industries, largely due to natural resource depletion, global competition, and environmental pressure. Despite the efforts for sustainability improvement, still over a half of energy consumption is wasted in manufacturing sectors, where the chemical industry is responsible for an energy efficiency lower than it should be. Many attempts have been made to recover the thermal energy using heat integration techniques. Although process work is more expensive than process heat, no efficient solution has been studied to recover mechanical energy yet. In chemical plants, many process streams need to be pressurized or depressurized in …