*Article* **Process Drive Sizing Methodology and Multi-Level Modeling Linking MATLAB**® **and Aspen Plus**® **Environment**

#### **Patrik Furda 1,\*, Miroslav Variny 1,\*, Zuzana Labovská 1 and Tomáš Cibulka 2**


Received: 27 October 2020; Accepted: 17 November 2020; Published: 19 November 2020

**Abstract:** Optimal steam process drive sizing is crucial for efficient and sustainable operation of energy-intense industries. Recent years have brought several methods assessing this problem, which differ in complexity and user-friendliness. In this paper, a novel complex method was developed and presented and its superiority over other approaches was documented on an industrial case study. Both the process-side and steam-side characteristics were analyzed to obtain correct model input data: Driven equipment performance and efficiency maps were considered, off-design and seasonal operation was studied, and steam network topology was included. Operational data processing and sizing calculations were performed in a linked MATLAB®–Aspen Plus® environment, exploiting the strong sides of both software tools. The case study aimed to replace a condensing steam turbine by a backpressure one, revealing that: 1. Simpler methods neglecting frictional pressure losses and off-design turbine operation efficiency loss undersized the drive and led to unacceptable loss of deliverable power to the process; 2. the associated process production loss amounted up to 20%; 3. existing bottlenecks in refinery steam pipelines operation were removed; however, new ones were created; and 4. the effect on the marginal steam source operation may vary seasonally. These findings accentuate the value and viability of the presented method.

**Keywords:** process steam drive; software linking; heat pump; propane–propylene separation; steam network; pressure and heat losses; energy efficiency
