The influence of heat exchanger design on the synthesis of heat exchanger networks

Heat exchanger network (HEN) synthesis has been traditionally performed without accounting for a more detailed unit design, which is important since the final HEN may require unfeasible units. Recently, publications on this matter have appeared, as well as softwares that simultaneously perform synthesis and units design. However, these publications do not clearly show the influence of the new added features on the final HEN. Hence, this work aims at showing that units' design can strongly affect the final HEN. Improvements on heat transfer area and total annual cost estimations, which influence the HEN structural evolution, are the main responsible for that. It is also shown the influence of some design bounds settings, which can indicate an unfeasible unit design and, therefore, the need for a new match search or the maintenance of a loop. An example reported in the literature is used to illustrate the discussion.