Premium
An exergy calculator tool for process simulation
Author(s) -
MontelongoLuna Juan M.,
Svrcek William Y.,
Young Brent R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.76
Subject(s) - exergy , process (computing) , calculator , process engineering , process design , process simulation , chemical process , computer science , energy (signal processing) , engineering , process integration , statistics , mathematics , chemical engineering , operating system
The constant tightening of environmental regulations and the ongoing need to reduce operating costs have posed a challenge for the design of any chemical process. Process engineers use process simulators to help them perform calculations that will, ultimately, result in design parameters or operating conditions for a plant or process. Exergy is a potential indicator that can aid in the design of energy efficient chemical processes and plants. The exergy concept has been increasingly used as a tool to locate the critical energy use in many industrial processes, both chemical and non‐chemical. However, currently most process simulators in the market do not offer the capability of calculating the exergy of a process. An open‐source exergy calculator has been created by embedding the calculation procedure in an open‐source chemical process simulator. This improves process simulation by including a potential tool for design teams to quickly evaluate several process options in detail in order to understand their energy utilisation. A simple exergy analysis for a gas processing facility is used to demonstrate the capabilities of the tool. The analysis shows where the largest quantities of exergy are being consumed within the plant, thus pointing to areas where improvement in energy usage can be made. The use of exergy as a potential design and retrofit tool is also discussed. Copyright © 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.