PROCESS INTEGRATION

The research in Process Integration through Pinch Technology started in the late 1970s and early 1980s with an emphasis on Energy Conservation. It does not require complex mathematical formulations and is thus relatively easy to use for industrial problems. Pinch Technology comprises a set of simple and elegant tools with a fundamental thermodynamic basis. When applied in a systematic and logical manner, these design principles allow the process engineer to explore alternatives that are economically attractive for grassroots as well as retrofit applications. The technology recognizes the vital necessity to set targets, i.e., to predict the optimum utilisation of different resources (such as energy, water, power, hydrogen, etc.) or the amount of different resources that can possibly be conserved in a process. Process engineers with a sound knowledge of pinch principles could exploit the available options through process integration to arrive at an optimal design that suitably accounts for the intangibles (such as safety, layout, flexibility, controllability and operability). COURSE OBJECTIVES The course is planned to equip practicing engineers with the principles of pinch technology and techniques of process integration for better process design (economically attractive designs with optimal resource requirement), through a judicious blend of theory and industrial case studies. The primary focus of this course will be issues related to energy and wate