Hadi Soltani - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, PO Box ۵۱۳۳۵/۱۹۹۶, Tabriz, Iran
Sirous Shafiei - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, PO Box ۵۱۳۳۵/۱۹۹۶, Tabriz, Iran

This research is trying to develop a new procedure for synthesis of Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) including pressure drop using genetic algorithm (GA) coupled with linear programming (LP) method. The GA is used to produce structural configurations whereas continuous variablesare handled using a converted LP formulation for Maximum Energy Recovery (MER). To prevent complexity of the model, the pressure drops of streams are calculated from the results of LP formulation and are compared with allowable pressure drops. Results show that this method mayfind better optimal solutions with decrease in HENs annual cost.

Heat exchanger networks (HENs), Pressure drop, Genetic Algorithm (G.A.), LP formulation, Maximum energy recovery (MER)