Coupled sulfur/nitrogen fired-heater heat-recovery balance
RefineryHydrotreatingSulfurNitrogenFiredHeaterHeatRecoveryBalance consumes a
qualified stack-loss receipt and a caller-owned recovery fraction. The immutable
receipt returns recovered heat, remaining wet-flue-gas sensible loss, unchanged
residual furnace loss, post-recovery total furnace loss, and explicit closure.
The unit-explicit equations are:
recovered heat [MW] = stack sensible loss * recovery fraction
remaining stack sensible loss = stack sensible loss - recovered heat
post-recovery furnace loss = remaining stack sensible loss + residual furnace loss
original furnace loss = recovered heat + post-recovery furnace loss
RefineryHydrotreatingSulfurNitrogenFiredHeaterHeatRecoveryBalance recovery =
RefineryHydrotreatingSulfurNitrogenFiredHeaterHeatRecoveryBalance.calculate(
stackLoss, callerSpecifiedRecoveryFraction);
double recoveredHeatMw = recovery.getRecoveredHeatMegaWatt();
double remainingStackLossMw = recovery.getRemainingStackSensibleLossMegaWatt();
double postRecoveryLossMw = recovery.getPostRecoveryFurnaceLossMegaWatt();
For the public 1000 kg/h DOE/OEDI Big Hill chain, the qualified stack-loss receipt contains 0.091132539 MW stack sensible loss and 0.062718410 MW residual furnace loss. An illustrative caller-owned recovery fraction of 0.60 gives 0.054679523 MW recovered heat, 0.036453016 MW remaining stack sensible loss, and 0.099171425 MW post-recovery furnace loss with numerical-zero closure. The 0.60 value qualifies the arithmetic only; it is not a measured or recommended recovery efficiency.
U.S. Department of Energy process-heating guidance identifies exhaust-gas temperature and flow as important inputs to waste-heat opportunity and notes that practical recovery depends on process and equipment constraints. This receipt therefore keeps the recovery fraction caller-owned. It does not claim avoided fuel, emissions credits, utility savings, or economic benefit.
The receipt accepts recovery fractions from zero through one and fails closed for non-finite or out-of-range values. It does not size heat-recovery equipment, predict outlet or stack temperature, derive heat capacity, perform pinch or exchanger-network analysis, or model pressure drop or operability. It does not establish dew-point or corrosion limits. Those decisions require independent engineering qualification.
Sources accessed 2026-09-26: