Using turbine expanders to recover exothermic reaction heat—flow sheet development for typical chemical processes

The integration of a turbine expander into different types of high pressure, exothermic chemical synthesis processes is considered. In conventional systems, the reaction heat is often transferred to generate steam to drive steam turbines or used for heat integration. The heat is reduced in quality due to the temperature driving forces in the heat exchange equipment. Reaction heat can be utilised at the maximum possible temperature by placing a turbine expander directly after the reactor. The power generated from such combined power and chemical systems can either be exported or used to satisfy the process compressor requirements. A methodology is presented to lend structure to the development and analysis of the flow sheets for the mentioned systems. The methodology involves the consideration of various factors that were identified to impact on the flow sheet development. These factors are discussed and a brief overview of the flow sheet development for four different case studies is given. Process data generated from simulations are used.