Exergy Study of Fouling Factors in Heat Exchanger Networks

Selection of fouling factors is somewhat arbitrary in heat exchanger networks (HENs) synthesis. Fouling factors were reconsidered in this article for heat exchanger networks design. An objective function based on exergoeconomic analysis was introduced to assess optimal less conservative fouling factors. The objective took account of exergy consumption expense and heat exchanger capital cost at the same time. The exergy consumption of heat transfer in HENs was calculated using subsection integral on balanced composite curves. The proposed method was applied to an industrial case. Numerical results indicated that the optimal less conservative fouling factors were 80% of the original values and the heat transfer area of the system saved $350m2$ compared with root design. So it is necessary to reconsider the values of fouling factors for HENs design and that exergoeconomic analysis is useful in determining the optimal less conservative fouling factors.