Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology

Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology

Providing the New Energy-Exergy-Water Nexus Based Strategy for a Petrochemical Unit

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Azadeh shahidian 1
Milad Davoudian
Mohammad Reza Habibi 2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
2 Energy Technologies Research Division, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran, Iran
10.22078/jpst.2026.5725.1980
Abstract
The increasing population growth and industrial development have led to increasing electricity demand, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption. On the other hand, climate change can influence the amount of available renewable water. The production of electricity, water, and carbon is highly interdependent. One of the most prevalent fluids for energy conversion, transfer, and consumption is water. For this reason, in all industries, the topic of energy consumption is somehow integrated with the topic of water, so that achieving the goals of energy consumption reduction is not possible without paying attention to water management. In the present article, using the engineering equation solver (EES) software, the mass balance of the intended steam cycle was first carried out and then the required parameters, such as efficiency, exergy, power, etc., of different equipment were calculated. Finally, by providing solutions and scenarios, the assessment of the optimization of water and energy in the steam cycle of Petrochemical Unit A has been dealt with. By implementing scenarios for a condensing steam turbine named the STC-3001 turbine, the amount of steam consumption was reduced by 1.5 to 10.7 tons/hour, equivalent to an annual savings of $210,000 to $1,433,507 according to the intended utilities. Furthermore, by improving the steam system of the STC-1001 gland turbine, the amount of its steam consumption was reduced by about 6 tons/hour, equivalent to an annual savings of $778,400.
Keywords
water-energy nexus
steam cycle
steam producer and consumer
improving water and energy consumption
petrochemical unit
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