Implementation and Pitfalls of Process Integration

Process Integration (PI) is a powerful tool for designing and optimising processes for energy efficiency and sustainability. Sometimes its simplicity is misunderstood. Even PI has some potential pitfalls related to the problem formulation and data extraction. Regardless of the precision used, the results largely depend on solving the correct problem - i.e. if the formulation reflects the reality adequately and if the appropriate data have been extracted. An incorrect data extraction has been the reason for conclusions that PI did not work. When revisiting most of those problems, it becomes obvious that it was not a fault of the PI methodology, but an inexperienced user.