Consultation about HXN

Hello, may I ask you some questions about HXN? Thanks for your help. Wish you a good day.

a) If there is already heat exchange in the process, such as where ethanol is recovered in cellulosic model, do I need to cancel the heat exchange and then proceed to HXN?

b) Is it necessary to re-build the process according to the heat exchange scheme after the execution of HXN? For example, the original heat exchange is cancelled, and with the new heat exchange scheme, the position and number of heat exchangers may change, resulting in the need to re-build the process?

c) In the already reported article on BioSTEAM, has the process been reconfigured according to the HXN recommended heat transfer scheme? Or is the process before HXN still used (just add HXN unit in the process before HXN, so the process is still the process before HXN), but the reported TEA and LCA results are after HXN has been performed?

d) Is there any other bio-refining process in BioSTEAM that first does the heat transfer of ethanol recovery and then executes HXN?

e) When executing HXN, why is heat transfer sometimes performed by all units (https://github.com/BioSTEAMDevelopmentGroup/Bioindustrial-Park/blob/master/biorefineries/cane/systems/sugarcane/sugar_ethanol.py#L60) and sometimes between several units (https://github.com/BioSTEAMDevelopmentGroup/Bioindustrial-Park/blob/master/biorefineries/cane/systems/sugarcane/ethanol.py#L87-L88)?

f) If there are already heat exchange units in the process, do these units need to be deducted when executing HXN? or BioSTEAM will automatically re-exchange heat for all units, including above already heat exchange units? Or does BioSTEAM not take into account units that have already performed heat transfer when performing HXN, only perform HXN on units that have not performed heat transfer?

g) After BioSTEAM executes HXN, how can we see that the infrastructure cost will be increased (https://biosteam.readthedocs.io/en/latest/API/facilities/HeatExchangerNetwork.html#:~:text=The%20heat%20exchanger%20network%20reduces%20the%20heating%20and%20cooling%20utility%20requirements%20of%20the%20system%20and%20may%20add%20additional%20capital%20cost.)? Will additional heat exchangers be added after BioSTEAM executes HXN？

h) If some units have already exchanged heat through bilateral heat exchangers (HXprocess unit), will they re-participate in the heat exchange network optimization after BioSTEAM executes HXN?

i) After BioSTEAM executes HXN, could I consult you how to check the steam consumption and power consumption of the process after HXN?

j) Could I trouble you take some time to look at the question #115 about HXN.

Start by reading the linked sugar_ethanol.py and ethanol.py HXN call sites, then consult the HeatExchangerNetwork documentation and issue #115. The issue has no single implementation target or acceptance criteria; it would need a decided documentation scope and verified answers to the listed process-modeling questions before work can be considered done.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.