The traditional methods for synthesizing flexible heat exchanger networks(HENs)are not directly applicable to inter-plant HEN challenges,primarily due to the spread of system uncertainty across plants via intermedium fluid circles.This complicates the synthesis process significantly.To tackle this issue,this study proposes a decomposed stepwise methodology to facilitate the flexible synthesis of the inter-plant HENs performing indirect heat integration.A decomposition strategy is proposed to divide the overall network into manageable sub-networks by dissecting the intermedium fluid circles.To address the variability in intermedium fluid temperatures,a temperature fluctuation analysis approach is developed and a heuristic rule is introduced to maintain the temperature feasibility of the intermedium fluids.To ensure adequate flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the designed networks,flexibility analysis and network retrofit steps are conducted through model-based optimization techniques.The efficacy of the method is demonstrated through two case studies,showing its potential in achieving the desired operational flexibility for inter-plant HENs.