A mathematical model for optimal compression costs in the hydrogen networks for the petroleum refineries

Hydrogen network design is an important step in hydrogen management of a petroleum refinery that manages the hydrogen distribution and consumption in a cost‐effective manner. While most works in this area have primarily focused on minimization of fresh hydrogen requirement and hydrogen purification aspects, very few works have dealt the issue of compression costs in hydrogen network designs. This work proposes a new mathematical model for synthesizing a hydrogen network with minimum compression costs. In contrast to the existing literature, this model uses stream‐dependent properties and realistic compressor cost correlations to determine the compression duty and costs, respectively. Tests on literature examples show that our model is flexible and gives reasonably favorable solutions than the previous models. Furthermore, the usefulness of understanding the trade‐offs between the number of compressors and compression duty and the importance of using stream‐dependent conditions in estimating compression costs are also highlighted in this work. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 3925–3943, 2017