Exergy analysis of renewable jet fuel production through hydro-conversion of glyceride-based oil

•The exergy and pinch analyses were conducted for HRJ production.•The exergy efficiency for all products in the process was determined as 90.51%.•The total energy efficiency of the process utilities was found as 81.97%. Hydro-processed renewable jet fuels (HRJs) have been proposed to reduce aircraft emissions. In order for HRJs to compete with petrochemical aviation fuel, it is necessary to improve their energy utilization and reduce their energy dissipation. This can reduce the energy cost for a commercial plant that hydro-processes renewable jet fuel. In this study, exergy and pinch analyses are performed to demonstrate the actual recycling heat flow and optimize heat integration. In addition, the maximum exergy destruction and energy recovery for each process unit are evaluated. The results show that the total exergy efficiency of all the products in the process is 92.24%; the energy of the obtained target product (i.e., HRJ) is 1101.40 MW, which accounts for 68% of the energy of all the products. After heat integration, the results indicated an energy saving of 208.8 MW and a utility energy efficiency of 81.97%. The exergy and pinch analyses reported in this paper can aid in improving the recyclability and energy saving capacity of the designed process.