Technical and Economic Feasibility of Heat Pump in Integrated Distillation System to Decrease Energy Apply – A Case Study of Abadan refinery in Southern Part of Iran

One key approach to improving the energy efficiency and reduction greenhouse gas (GHG) production of many industrial operations is to recover every possible sources of waste heat and turn them to useful outputs [1]. Heat pumping is an economic way to conserve energy [2]. A heat pump system is a cycle that transfer heat from a heat source to a sink source by mechanical work. Heat pumps can be used to upgrade wasted heat energy, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, and also reduces energy production costs. That’s why heat pump becomes a key component in industry. This study investigates feasibility of installing heat pumps in unit PRU in Abadan petroleum refinery has been studied technically, economically and environmentally. Base on this case, heat pump would lead to an estimated 42.75 MMBTU/h saving that could be achieved with a payback of 3 years. It improves the system efficiency by 15%.