A review: Energy recovery in batch processes

The implementation of batch processing has increased due to its intrinsic flexibility and adaptability. These are essential characteristics when it comes to producing high-value added materials such as agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals…the demand for which has grown in recent decades.Although industrial processes are highly diverse, a common feature to all is that they utilize fossil fuels as the energy source. The reliance on fossil fuels as a primary source of energy generates a negative impact on the environment. The implantation of renewable energies and efficient usage of energy has thus become crucial. Improving energy use could be achieved through advancements in plant machinery and the use of methodologies such as ‘process integration’.Process integration can be described as system oriented methods that could be used during the design and retrofit of industrial processes in order to obtain an optimal utilization of resources. The methods have traditionally focused on an efficient energy use, although recently process integration techniques cover other areas such as efficient use of raw materials, emission reduction and process operations. Energy integration tries to reach the optimization of heat, power, fuel and utilities.The consideration of energy integration complicates the process design and the generation of batch process design alternatives, so what is now required is the proposal and development of different approaches and methods oriented towards recovering energy in this kind of industrial process. Improving energy end-use efficiency will make it possible to reduce dependence on energy imports and bring about innovation and competitiveness.The aim of this work is report the main contributions that have been carried out in order to attain energy integration in batch processes, as well as different examples of applications that have shown the possibilities offered by the developed tools.