The efficiency of energy-utilization in chemical processes

✍ Scribed by Lothar Riekert

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 705 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(74)87012-0

✦ Synopsis

Chemical processes may be regarded as a transfer of chemical energy from the starting material into the products. The work equivalent of any material is the maximum amount of shaft work or electrical energy which can possibly be obtained from it when heat and matter are exchanged with the environment. It depends on the material's temperature, pressure and chemical composition as well as on the respective properties of the environment. All contributions to the work equivalent of any substance can be expressed in the same consistent units and evaluated quantitatively, including the contribution due to chemical composition. A measure of the efficiency of energy utilization in a chemical process-based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics-can be obtained, if one compares the total output of work equivalent in all outgoing streams to the total input. This concept is developed in a formal way and applied to the analysis of two industrial processes.