Heat Integration of Reactors - Summary

The appropriate placement of reactors, as far as heat integration is concerned, is that exothermic reactors should be integrated above the pinch and endothermic reactors below the pinch. Care should be taken when reactor feeds are preheated by heat of reaction within the reactor for exothermic reactions. This can constitute cross-pinch heat transfer. The feeds should be preheated to pinch temperature by heat recovery before being fed to the reactor. 

Appropriate placement can be assessed quantitatively using the grand composite curve. The streams associated with the reactor can be represented as a grand composite curve for the reactor and then matched against the grand composite curve for the rest of the process. 

Glavic, P., Kravanja, Z., and Homsak, M., Heat Integration of Reactors I. Criteria 

Linnhoff, B., Townsend, D. W., and Boland, D., et al., A Users Guide on Process Integration for the Efficient Use of Energy, IChemE, Rugby, U.K., 1982. 

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