Heat Recovery

Shehryar Ishaque
ME1412

Contents

Constraints on heat recovery

Waste heat classification
Practical limitations on heat recovery
Waste heat surveys
Heat recovery equipment
Energy cascade systems

 Constraints on heat recovery

Successful heat recovery of waste heat depends on 5 factors
Adequate quantity of waste heat
Adequate quality for economical recovery
Appropriate use of the recovered heat
Available heat recovery equipment
Profit(savings)

 Availability
It is the maximum work that a system could perform in going
from its existing state of equilibrium with its surroundings
b= (h-h0)-T0(s-s0)

Irreversibility
The conversion of energy during a process into a form that
can no longer be converted into the useful work

I= mout T0sout - min T0sin Qcv

Efficiency

based on first law consideration

Efficiency

Efficiency based on 2nd law is

This equation of efficiency can be modified for different elements e.g
Heating water electrically, power cycles, Refrigeration and heat pump
cycles, compressors, pumps, turbines and heat exchangers

Temporal availability
Whether or not the waste heat is available when it is needed.
Consider 425F exhaust from an oven as a waste heat source to heat
water for a washing process. Suppose the oven operates on the 2 nd
plant shift while the washing process occurs during the first shift.
Heat can be recovered only if operations are rescheduled or if the
waste heat from the oven is collected and stored

Waste Heat Classification

Thermodynamic constraints on waste heat recovery depend
strongly on the temperature of the waste heat source. Accordingly,
the primary classification for waste heat is based on the source
temperature. The classification is as follows
High temperature range
1100F T 3000F
Medium temperature range
400F T < 1100F
Low temperature range
80F T < 400F
High temperature ranges have High availability, economical and
need careful design
The use of waste heat can be either direct or indirect. For example
combustion air pre heating by flue gases and waste heat boiler
recovering heat from a gas turbine exhaust and providing steam
for a nearby process heater

Utilization of waste heat

Direct utilization: No heat exchanger required

Recuperation: This involves the use of recuperative heat
exchangers
Regeneration: This variation of recuperation involves the storage
of waste heat in a medium and the subsequent recovery of the
heat by the cool stream passing over the medium
Waste heat boilers: These are recuperators that are used to
produce process steam and/or hot water. Energy cascading: in this
technique the energy is used at its highest availability first and
then in a serial fashion until its availability is so low as to be of no
further economic value.
Cogeneration: Plant site generation of steam for both electrical
generation and process steam is called cogeneration.

Practical Limitations on Heat

Recovery
1)
2)
3)

low-temperature recovery can prove uneconomical

Dumping of waste heat, required when a waste heat load is
interrupted, can be tolerable
Temporal mismatch between load and source can make heat
recovery impractical

What can be done to accommodate

these limitations:

pump: low-temperature recovery

TheThe
heatheat
pump is gaining acceptance as a means of upgrading low
temperature waste heat to a temperature at which it can be used
economically
COP=

Graph to be added here

 Open cycle heat pumps

One means of extending the temperature limits of the heat pump

cycle is to compress the process stream directly rather than using
intermediate heat exchangers and an intermediate refrigerant. We
call this an open cycle heat pump because of the once-through
nature of the process.

Waste heat dumping

When waste heat is reclaimed from a process, some provision must

be made to continue the heat recovery from the process if the load is
changed or temporarily interrupted. Otherwise the energy balance in
the source process is upset, and this could lead to equipment
damage or process shutdown. Thus, the design of the recovery
operation must include provisions for dumping the waste heat.

Heat storage

Storage of recovered waste heat can overcome some temporal

mismatch between load and sources. But storing vast quantity of
heat is expensive because additional equipment is required. This can
create space problems and can cause a potential heat recovery
project to be uneconomical.

Waste Heat Surveys

Sequence of waste heat recovery
Fig 9.14
Fig 9.15

Heat recovery equipment

Types of Recovery exchangers
Gas to gas recovery
Gas to liquid recovery
Liquid to liquid recovery

Gas to Gas Recovery

Devices available for gas to gas heat recovery are

Recuperators
Recuperators are closed heat exchangers designed for high
temperature application.
The hot flue gases flow through the inner passage of this device while
the air to be heated flows through an external annulus. When the air
is used for combustion, preheating reduces the energy required from
the fuel to heat the air to the combustion temperature.
Fig 9.16
Fig 9.17 Shell and tube convection recuperator
Fig 9.18 Plate type recuperator

The recuperative burner:

This device uses combustion products from the combustion zone to
preheat combustion air. This is done by surrounding the burner with
an annulus heat exchanger in which the incoming air is heated by
combustion products.
as shown in fig 9.19

Regenerators:
Regenerators operate in a transient manner, in that they contain
elements that are alternately heated and cooled.
An element of the unit heated as it rotates through the flue gas
stream. It then gives up its stored heat to the counter flowing air
stream as the unit rotates full-circle. Similar smaller systems, called
heat wheels are used to reclaim exhaust heat from building air
conditioning systems. Fig 20 shows rotary type regenerator

Run-Around loops:
If the heat recovery sink is not adjacent to the heat source, a runaround loop may be utilized . In this case there is no need for
rerouting of duct work for high-volume gas flows. Rather, a closed
liquid loop is used to transport the recovered heat from source to sink.
As shown in fig 9.21

Heat Pipe Exchangers:

It is basically a closed evaporation-condensation loop. Because of the
phase-change nature of the operation, large quantities of heat can be
transported from the heated to the cooled end with a very small
temperature drop. Thus the heat pipe is almost an isothermal
transporter of energy. As shown in fig 9.22

Gas to Liquid Recovery

The usual arrangement is for the gas to be circulated over tubes through which the liquid is
flowing. Two devices that are often used in gas to liquid recovery are economizers and waste
heat boilers.

Energy cascade systems

Definition:
Matching the quality (temperature) of the available energy to the
needs of the task.

Principal idea:
Principal idea of energy cascading is to use the exhausted heat from
the highest temperature process in the plant to drive a series of
devices down to a temperature where heat recovery is no longer
economical. Each successive device uses the preceding exhaust as
part of its energy source.

Fig 9.30