Concepts of Thermodynamics

Prof. Suman Chakraborty

Lecture – 55
Exergy Analysis: Examples

In our previous lectures, we were discussing about reversible work, irreversibility and
exergy, these 3 important concepts, and now, we will solve some problems which will
illustrate the use of these concepts.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:35)

So, we’ll start with problem 8.1: a refrigerator has a freezer at TF and cold space at TC
from which energy is removed and rejected to the ambient at TA as shown in the figure.
Assuming that the rate of heat transfer from the cold space Q̇C is same as that from the
freezer Q̇F, find an expression for minimum power into the heat pump; I mean, which is
in this case is a refrigerator, not a heat pump, but conceptually they work in the same
way, you have to find out what is the minimum power input.

So, minimum power input refers to a condition when the irreversibilities are minimum,
and that means it is a reversible refrigerator. So, that is the concept that you have to
understand. Maximum power output will correspond to an energy producing device for a
reversible heat engine. Energy absorbing device will require minimum power input to
run the device for a reversible heat pump or a refrigerator. So, this when it is maximum
and minimum you have to understand carefully; when it is energy producing that energy
is maximum because of minimum losses, and when it is energy absorbing, that energy
required is minimum to run the show.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:27)

So, let me make a schematic of this problem. So, you have Q̇C with the temperature TC;
Ẇ, Q̇A, Q̇F. So, this is a cyclic device which is a refrigerator in this case and most
important is it is reversible. So, what are the basic equations that you need to apply for a
reversible refrigerator in this case? One is cyclic integral of heat equal to cyclic integral
of work, which is the 1st law.

So, let us apply the fundamental laws:

1st law:   Q   W
So, we will just right in terms of the rate, so, cyclic integral of the rate of heat transfer is
same as cyclic integral of the rate of work. So, rate of heat transfer is Q̇C + Q̇F - Q̇A.
This is cyclic integral of heat. Cyclic integral of work is ‘-Ẇ’, as per this figure.

Q̇C + Q̇F - Q̇A = - Ẇ

See, 1st law concerns about work, 2nd law concerns about only heat transfer because
work is a high grade energy, it doesn’t participate in entropy transport. So, 2nd law:
 Q
 T
 0 for a reversible cycle.

QC QF QA
So, this is   0
TC TF TA

Look carefully that we have taken the temperatures not of the system boundaries here,
but the reservoirs here. In this way, we have accounted for both internal and external part
of the process, whatever is internal plus whatever is external and ensured that it is both
internally and externally reversible.

So, now, what is given in the problem, let us see. It is given what is Q̇F and Q̇C, but Q̇A is
not given, so, let us eliminate Q̇A. So, Q̇A from here you can write

QCTA QFTA
QA  
TC TF

So, then, from this equation,

TA TA
-Ẇ = Q̇C(1 - ) + Q̇F(1 - )
TC TF

This is the final expression. So, in this expression, you can substitute Q̇C is 3 kW; TA, TF,
TC all are given, you have to convert those into Kelvin and just substitute, and this will
be 0.504 kW for this.

See, solving a problem is not about getting the final answer, there is also an insight that
needs to be developed. So, let us try to develop an insight of this expression. If you recall
that here there is a system to which you have two heat transfers effectively done and you
are trying to find out an expression for the reversible work. So, you can clearly see that
this is exergy associated with the heat transfer Q̇C, this is exergy associated with the heat
transfer Q̇F. So, this essentially is an expression that gives the reversible work through
exergy balance. Because it’s a reversible system, the entire exergy that is supplied is
equivalent to the reversible work, there is no irreversibility.

So, you can see that the same problem can be perceived from exergy balance and also
directly from a consequence of the 1st law and the 2nd law. Let us go to the next problem,
let me erase this.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:45)

A steam turbine receives steam at 6 MPa, 800 ºC and it has a heat loss of 49.7 kJ/kg and
isentropic efficiency of 90 %. I have not yet introduced what is isentropic efficiency. So,
I will do that in context of this problem and then we will discuss further. For an exit
pressure of 15 kPa and surroundings at 20 ºC, find the actual work and irreversible work
between the inlet and exit.

State ‘i’: 6 MPa, 800 ºC

State ‘e’: 15 kPa

So, this is a very classical situation related to analysis of steam turbine. I will first draw a
schematic of the situation in the board.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:35)

So, there is a steam turbine. It has a inlet state ‘i’ and the exit state ‘e’. The inlet state is 6
MPa, 800 ºC. So, you draw this in a T-s diagram. Sometimes, there is a temptation of
drawing it in an enthalpy-entropy diagram, h-s diagram, the reason is that for 1st law
based calculations, you require enthalpy, it will not really require temperature, so, if
there is a diagram that directly gives enthalpy versus entropy, then that is very
convenient. That, in industrial application perspective, is also known as Mollier chart or
Mollier diagram.

Here, we are more concerned about the fundamentals of thermodynamics, so, we will not
get into the use of Mollier chart, but I am just telling that as a passing note because you
may be requiring the h-s chart for solving problems when you are participating in more
applied thermodynamics courses; this is a fundamental thermodynamics course.

So, you have the liquid vapour dome. The turbine is grossly specified by the following.
So, in one, you have a pressure at which the steam enters the turbine; this is, say, given
by pi and the pressure at which the steam exits from the turbine is pe. Now, by isentropic
efficiency, we want to compare the actual work done by the turbine vis-a-vis the
reversible adiabatic work, that is, if the state ‘e’ would have been such that from ‘i’ to
‘e’, it would have been a reversible adiabatic process or an isentropic process, then what
would be the work?
So, if it would have been a reversible adiabatic process, let us call this as ‘es’; this is not
the actual state ‘e’, but this is the reversible adiabatic hypothetical state ‘e’, so, ‘es’. The
actual process will take the point ‘e’ somewhere here. Now, the question is, where is the
guarantee that this point ‘e’ will be in the right side of ‘es’ or it could also be in the left
side of ‘es’? So, let us look into that more careful.

So, you can decompose the change of state from ‘i’ to ‘e’ as from ‘i’ to ‘es’ and then
from ‘es’ to ‘e’, just break it into 2 parts. From ‘i’ to ‘es’, there is no change in entropy,
because it is a reversible adiabatic process; from ‘es’ to ‘e’, you can write

q
se - se =
s + Sgen
T

This is what you can write. So, the question is that Sgen is always positive, right? ‘q’
could be +, - or 0.

So, the net effect could be that ‘se - ses ’ is +; when it is trivially +? It is trivially + that
q
this is the case when the turbine is adiabatic, because if the turbine is adiabatic, is 0,
T
then entropy generation is always positive, so, ‘e’ goes to the right side. This is what
most commonly happens in industrial practice because for all practical purposes, the
turbine can be treated adiabatic in most of the circumstances.

However, there is no guarantee to that. You could have this ‘q’ +, - or 0, so, the net ‘se -

ses ’ could be +, - or 0. So, technically, this ‘e’ could be in the right of ‘es’, it could even
coincide with ‘es’ and it could be in the left of ‘es’. That must be conceptually
understood. So, the very fact that we have in most of the practical cases ‘e’ to the right
side of ‘es’ should not develop a prejudice in our mind that ‘e’ will always be in the right
of ‘es’, it depends on the nature of heat transfer across the turbine, that is what it is
governed by, because other than heat transfer, the entropy generation part, that is trivially
positive part.

So, now, coming back to this problem, let us see what is defined, what is given. State ‘e’
is 15 kPa which is same as state ‘es’. There is no difference in pressure between ‘e’ and
‘es’, so, this is 15 kPa. So, now, if you apply the 1st law for per unit mass flow rate across
the turbine, so, you have
1st law (SSSF)(‘i’ to ‘es’): qs + hi = he,s + ws

In that case, the reversible adiabatic qs is 0, because it is adiabatic. So, I am completing

qs + hi = he,s + ws

So, I am writing this work as ws; ws corresponds to reversible adiabatic per unit work or
isentropic work.

So, isentropic work will necessarily be

ws = hi - he,s

So, how do you know what is the state ‘es’? Very simple. The state ‘es’ can be defined by
2 properties: one is ses = si and si is known from steam table; at state ‘i’, you find out
what is si. And pes is equal to what? pes = 15 kPa (pe).

So, ses = si and pes = 15 kPa, this will give you what is state ‘es’; it will be in the 2-phase
region typically. So, you can find out the quality by setting

ses = (1 - xes )sf,s + xes sg,s

where sf and sg are sf and sg at 15 kPa. So, once you calculate this what is ses , then you
can calculate what is hes also by using this interpolation formula for enthalpy. So,

hes = (1 - xes )hf,s + xes hg,s

So, to summarise, by this calculation, you know what is reversible adiabatic work. What
is the actual work? For actual work, you have to use the 1st law between the states ‘i’ to
‘e’. Now, this turbine is a special turbine where heat transfer is not neglected. So,

q + hi = h e + w

This ‘q’ is given. It has a heat loss of 49.7 kJ/kg. So, q = - 49.7 kJ/kg
And what is the exit state? The exit state is governed by what is the actual work. Now,
you know that the actual work by the isentropic or reversible adiabatic work, this is
defined as the isentropic efficiency.

w
ηs =
ws

This is the definition, please make a note of this. I will talk about the definition of
isentropic efficiency of a work absorbing device also after I complete this problem. This
is the definition of isentropic efficiency of a work producing device, where the actual
work is less than the reversible adiabatic work.

So, then, because you know what is ws by substituting in ‘ws = hi - he,s’, and isentropic
w
efficiency is given as 90 %, so, from ηs = , you know what is ‘w’. You substitute
ws
that ‘w’ in ‘q + hi = he + w’. Once you substitute that ‘w’ here, you get what is ‘he’. So,
what is asked is what is the reversible work between the inlet and exit? So, to understand
what is the reversible work between the inlet and the exit, you need to also know the
entropy of the exit, not just enthalpy, so, you have to specify state ‘e’. How is state ‘e’
specified? It is specified by pe and he. So, from here, you can get what is se from table.

So, what is the reversible work?

wrev = (hi – T0si) – (he – T0se)

This is the expression that we have derived; this is a reversible work per unit mass
because of change in state from ‘i’ to ‘e’. So, if you know these values, T0 is given, T0 is
20 ºC, that is 293.15 K. So, wrev will be 1636.8 kJ/kg. I just want to make a final note
before concluding the solution of this problem.

The final note is that this definition of isentropic efficiency is true for a work producing
device only. For a work absorbing device like a compressor, the reversible adiabatic
work is the minimum work, not the maximum. So, for isentropic efficiency of
compressor, it will be the reversible adiabatic work input in the top, in the numerator,
divided by the actual work input (both are in terms of magnitude) at the bottom.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:01)

So, for compressor, let me spell it out:

| ws | in
ηs =
| w in |

The spirit of reversing the expression is that, efficiency, we always have an imagination
it cannot be more than 100 %, but it’s always a comparison between reversible adiabatic
with the actual case; which one will be there at the numerator and denominator depends
on which one is more and which one is less. So, let us solve another problem: problem
8.3.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:51)

So, problem 8.3: a 2 kg piece of iron is heated from room temperature 25 ºC to 400 ºC by
a heat source at 600 ºC. What is the irreversibility in the process? So, this is a very
straight forward typical problem, but let us work it out.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:15)

So, m = 2 kg

T1 = (273.15 + 25) K

T2 = (273.15 + 25) K
Ambient temperature = T0 = (273.15 + 600) K

So, for knowing the irreversibility, you need to know what is the entropy generation. To
know the entropy generation, you have to know what is the heat transfer. To know the
heat transfer, you have to apply the 1st law. So, we’ll start with the 1st law for the iron
(Fe) block:

Q12 = U2 - U1 + W12

Iron block doesn’t do any work: Q12 = U2 - U1 + W12

For a solid object like iron, U2 – U1 = mC(T2 - T1). The specific heat of iron, C, is 0.42
kJ/kg.K; this data is required for solving your problem. So, you get what is Q12. Then
you apply the 2nd law:

Q12
S2 – S 1 = + Sgen
T0

So, in this case, we have to make a decision. What is the decision? The decision is that is
T0 the ambient temperature or is this the heat source temperature different from the
ambient temperature? So, here, it appears that it is not ambient temperature; it is the heat
source temperature at 600 ºC. So, the irreversibility that you calculate, the reference
temperature is always important. You could calculate irreversibility by taking the heat
source as the reference temperature, but that is called as immediate surrounding. Normal
tradition is to calculate irreversibility with respect to the actual ambient temperature as
the reference temperature.

So, if we do not choose this to be the ambient temperature; it is not clear in this problem
statement that this is not the ambient temperature.

TH = (273.15 + 600) K

Q12
S2 – S 1 = + Sgen
TH

So, in that case, the heat transfer is taking place with this thermal reservoir (TH), not T0.
So, the entropy generation, TH will appear in the heat transfer term and S2 – S1 =
 T2
mCln( ). So, in this expression, everything is known except entropy generation which
T1
is found out.

The irreversibility is simply: I = T0Sgen

Here, you have to make a decision that what is this T0. Normally, this is called as exergy
reference temperature which is the ambient temperature. So, in this problem, the intuition
is that the ambient temperature is 25 ºC and not the 600 ºC. So, then, if you put that as
T0, so, this will give you the irreversibility and the irreversibility in this case is 96.4 kJ.

So, let us stop here for the time being. We will continue with more problem-solving in
the next lecture.