Abstract: Hydrogen production from coal water slurry (CWS) is one of the important hydrogen sources in the refinery. It was found that the heat exchange network had the problems of insufficient heat recovery and large consumption of circulating water. The analysis results showed that the current heat exchange network could not recover energy sufficiently and consumed excess cooling water, and the energy saving potential of the unit was 7 723 kW. Based on the analysis results, the heat exchange network was optimized according to the pinch principle, which could save 7 723 kW of heat utility and 11.524 million Yuan annually. The optimized transformation scheme had the advantages of low cost, short payback period, obvious energy-saving effect and greatly increased economic benefits.

Key words: coal water slurry gasification, hydrogen production, pinch technology, heat exchange network, energy conservation