Splitting the total exergy destruction into endogenous and exogenous parts of the thermal processes in a real industrial plant

Abstract

The total exergy destruction occurring in a component is not only due to the component itself (endogenous exergy destruction) but is also caused by the inefficiencies of the remaining system components (exogenous exergy destruction). Hence care must be taken in using the total exergy destruction of a component for making decisions to optimize the overall energy system. In this paper, a complex industrial plant is analyzed by splitting the component’s exergy destruction into its endogenous part (the part resulting totally from the component’s irreversibilities) and its exogenous part (resulting from the irreversibilities of the other components within the system). It is observed that the steam generator has the dominant effect. From the total exergy destruction in the steam generator, 1,097.63 kW or 96.95% come from internal irreversibilities in the component, while the influence of other components on the loss of useful work in the steam generator is only 3.05%.