Exergy Analysis of Green Energy Systems

Abstract

Exergy analysis is a thermodynamic analysis technique based primarily on the Second Law of Thermodynamics. As an alternative to energy analysis, exergy analysis provides an illuminating means of assessing and comparing processes and systems rationally and meaningfully. Consequently, exergy analysis can assist in improving and optimizing designs. Two key features of exergy analysis are (1) it yields efficiencies which provide a true measure of how nearly actual performance approaches the ideal, and (2) it identifies more clearly than energy analysis the types, causes and locations of thermodynamic losses. Increasing application and recognition of the usefulness of exergy methods by those in industry, government and academia has been observed in recent years in many countries. This point is backed by the fact that over the past 25 years several books on exergy analysis have been published [1-10], and many research articles have been published [11-15]. Applications of exergy have occurred in a diverse range of fields, including electricity generation and cogeneration, fuel processing, energy storage, transportation, industrial energy use, building energy systems, and others. In addition, exergy analysis has been applied to fields outside thermody-namics, such as biology and ecology, management of industrial systems and economics. The present authors, for instance, have applied exergy analysis to various __________________________________