Procedures for Efficient and Economic Recovery of Heat for Reuse in Batch Processes for Cleaning

The expenditure of primary energy can be reduced and the economics of process plants in the food industry can be improved by intelligent application of Process Integration (PI). Since a greater part of the products in the food industry is processed in batches, the use of Thermal- Energy Storage (TES) may be required to achieve these improvements. Further improvements may be achieved if there is a need, in the plant, for heating water at low-or-medium-level temperatures for cleaning purposes and there are significant quantities of medium-to-lowtemperature heat recoverable. Such conditions are often encountered in the food industry. However, the extent to which PI is utilized is much smaller than the number of potential applications. The present paper will address this topic, give some reasons for the underuse of PI, and indicate some principles, methods, and directions that, when applied, could increase the use and usefulness of PI by incorporating TES, thus fulfilling PI’s promises of improved operation, reduced energy consumption, reduced environmental impact, and improved economics. The application of these procedures is illustrated through the description of two cases. Keywords: Heat Recovery. Industrial Process Integration. Batch Processes, Hot Water