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South African Journal of Science
On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.103 n.5-6 Pretoria May./Jun. 2007
RESEARCH ARTICLES
On cooling-water systems design for South African industry: Two recent developments
Thokozani Majozi; Nongezile Nyathi
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
ABSTRACT
This paper presents two recent developments in the targeting and design of cooling-water systems using process integration. The basis of this work is the observation that true optimization of any cooling-water system, comprising a cooling tower and a network of operations that use cooling water, can be realized only by considering the system as a whole. Traditional approaches have focused separately on either the cooling tower or the operational network. Optimality, in the context of this paper, refers to minimum cooling-water flowrate to the network or maximum return temperature to the source of the cooling water (a cooling tower). Only systems with at least two cooling towers instead a single one are considered here, to highlight the complexity of a typical cooling-water system. The first exercise is based on a graphical technique in which targeting for the minimum cooling water precedes design of the cooling-water network to achieve the target. The second exercise uses mathematical modelling to optimize a superstructure that entails all possible topological arrangements of the cooling-water network. An industrial case study involving a South African explosives manufacturing plant is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of both techniques. Cooling-water savings of more than 20% were realized with modest capital investment.
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Received 13 January 2005.
Accepted 12 January 2007.
‡Author for correspondence. E-mail: thoko.majozi@up.ac.za