ASPEN Exercise - Heat Exchangers

Heat exchanger
Aspen session
Case study:
Freon-12 (R-12), at a flow rate of 12,000 kg/h, is to be heated from 250 to 300 K. Ethylene
glycol (EG) is available at 370 K. A typical shell and tube heat exchanger will be used. The plant
engineer recommends that the minimum temperature approach should be at least 15 K. They
also recommend using 20 BWG carbon-steel tubing with a pressure drop not exceeding 0.34
atm for either the shell or tube side
Exercise
(1) Using Aspen Plus, choose “Specialty Chemicals with Metric Units” template to create
the process flow sheet. The default property model will be “NRTL”. Add the two components,
ethylene glycol (EG) and dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12).
(2) To avoid annoying warnings, you may go to “Methods” | “Parameters” | “Binary
Interaction” | “NRTL-1” sheet and ensure that the “Estimate missing parameters by UNIFAC”
option is selected. Click “Reset” followed by “Next” button to run the simulation and assure
that properties analysis completed successfully.
(3) Switch to “Simulation” environment. The “Exchangers” tab in “Model Palette” shows
the four options of a heat exchanger type. These represent four different calculation models,
not physically different heat exchangers.
The description of each item is quoted from Aspen Plus built-in help.
“Heater”: The basic heat exchanger model that performs simple energy balance calculations;
it requires only one process stream. You can use Heater to represent heaters, coolers, valves,
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pumps, and compressors (whenever work-related results are not needed). You can also use
Heater to set the thermodynamic condition of a stream. When the user specifies the outlet
conditions, Heater will determine the thermal and phase conditions of a mixture with one or
more inlet streams.
“HeatX”: The fundamental heat exchanger model that is used in a rigorous design; it will
calculate energy balance, pressure drop, exchanger area, velocities, and so on and requires
two process streams: hot and cold. HeatX can model a wide variety of shell and tube heat
exchanger types and perform heat transfer related tasks.
“MHeatX”: As its name tells, a multi-heat-exchanger model can be used to represent heat
transfer between multiple hot and cold streams, as in an LNG exchanger, for example. MHeatX
can perform a detailed and rigorous internal zone analysis to determine the internal pinch
points and heating and cooling curves for all streams in the heat exchanger. MHeatX uses
multiple heater blocks and heat streams to enhance flowsheet convergence.
“HXFlux”: A heat exchanger model that is used to perform heat transfer calculations between
a heat sink and a heat source, using convective heat transfer and does not require any input
or output material stream; nevertheless, you may add heat streams to substitute the heat
exchange duty. The driving force for the convective heat transfer is calculated as a function of
log-mean temperature difference (LMTD).
(4) Add the first type of heat exchangers (i.e., “Heater”) to the flowsheet just to calculate
the amount of heat (heat duty), which will then enable us to calculate the area available for
heat transfer using the “HeatX” model.
(5) Set the specification of Freon inlet stream as such:

• Temperature: 250 K
• Pressure 8 atm
• Composition: R-12 12000 Kg/hr
(6) Enter the pressure drop (−0.1 bar) and temperature change (300K−250K = 50K). Keep
the “Valid phases” option set to “Vapor–liquid”. For pressure, you have two options. You can
put the outlet pressure or put the pressure drop for the unit. Aspen Plus assumes that the
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negative number means a pressure drop. On the other hand, a positive number would mean
a value for the actual outlet pressure.
(7) Reset and run the simulation to see the results. What’s the value for heat duty? Under
the given conditions, at what phase Freon exist in both streams?
(8) Replace the “Heater” block by “HeatX” type block from “Model Palette”. For “HeatX”
block, the ethylene glycol stream will need to be added. Make sure that the proper stream is
connected to the correct port of the block. The Freon-12 stream will be on the cold side and
the glycol stream will be on the hot side of the heat exchanger as shown in figure below:
(9) Since the mass flow rate of EG is unknown, we will utilize the calculated heat duty, Q,
and find the mass flow rate of EG such that it gives the right outlet temperature of “EG-OUT”
stream, which is 315 K. If you create a new simulation file, then enter the properties of “FR12-
IN” stream as was done in the simplified “HEATER” case. For “EG-IN” stream flow rate, it will
be a matter of a “trial-and-error” attempt until the correct value of “EG-OUT” stream
temperature is obtained. The mass flow rate is assumed to be 5000 kg/h of EG.
(10) Go to “Blocks” | “HEATX” | “Setup” | “Specifications” tab window. At this stage,
choose the simplest method of calculation, that is, “Shortcut” with “Calculation mode” as
“Design”. For “Exchanger specification” option, there are different options to choose from.
We will choose “Exchanger duty” for “Exchanger specification” and assign a value of 180.049
kW as was calculated earlier in the simplified “HEATER” case. For the “Model fidelity” option
set to “Shortcut” and the “Calculation mode” set to “Design” do not require the user to enter
the heat transfer area requirement at this stage. The “Shortcut flow direction” option will be
set to “Countercurrent”.
(11) Go to “LMTD” tab window and enable “Use interval analysis for LMTD
calculation”, select the following:
• LMTD correction factor method: Constant
• Number of flash points: 10
• Number of intervals between flash points: 10
• Maximum number of shells in series: 10
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(12) In “Pressure Drop” tab window, assign “0” value for “Outlet Pressure” to tell Aspen
Plus that the pressure drop is zero and enable “Always calculate pressure drop correlation
parameter” option for both streams of the exchanger.
(13) In “U Methods” tab window, select “Phase specific values” option for “Selected
calculation method” of the overall heat transfer coefficient, U.
(14) Reset, run the simulation, and check the results. The required temperature of EG-OUT
is 315 K, how does the outlet temperature compare to this value? If not, how can it be
reduced/ increased?
Final instructions:
Please submit a report on moodle (.pdf) consisting of screenshot of your results, with a short
reflection/ comments, answering the question above mentioned. This will count for your final
grade regarding ASPEN. It is due May 29th, 2024.
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Heat exchanger

(5) Set the specification of Freon inlet stream as such:

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