Exergy diagram

Publisher Summary The effective use of energy in a chemical plant results from employing the combination of processes that consumes the least amount of exergy as a whole in manufacturing the products. To examine the flow of exergy, the diagram that visualizes the exergy balance in manufacturing processes has practically been used for the purpose of improving the exergy efficiency in the plants. Furthermore, a novel concept of exergy vectors has been brought forth to evaluate the exergy efficiency of various processes on an enthalpy–exergy diagram. By means of exergy vectors, the minimum exergy thermodynamically required for a manufacturing process may be estimated in the diagram. This chapter describes the principle of exergy vector diagrams and their application to basic processes such as heating cooling, compression–expansion, separation mixing, and chemical reactions.