Optimal design of inter-plant hydrogen network with purification reuse/recycle

Abstract Hydrogen-rich gas from fertilizer plant and ethylene plant can be sent to refinery in a petrochemical complex, which can alleviate the deficit of hydrogen in refinery. Thus the optimization of inter-plant hydrogen network in a petrochemical complex is attractive. A novel superstructure for the optimal design of inter-plant hydrogen network with purification process is proposed and the corresponding mathematical programming models are presented for different scenarios. Two cases are utilized to illustrate the proposed approach. The flowrates of hydrogen utilities in refinery can be reduced via the inter-plant optimization. The number of inter-plant connections is optimized to simplify the network configuration. The shortcut model for pressure swing adsorption (PSA) considering the design conditions (pressure ratio and adsorbent selectivity) is also embedded into the mathematical programming model. The impacts of those design conditions of PSA on the performance of inter-plant hydrogen network are investigated. With the reduction of adsorbent selectivity and the increment of pressure ratio, the hydrogen recovery ratio will increase and the total annual cost will be reduced.