Process analysis using the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic exergy losses

This paper introduces a two-level idealization concept and decomposes the exergy losses of processing operations into the intrinsic part and the extrinsic part. The first level idealization is the reversible operation and the second level idealization is the thermodynamic equilibrium operation. The exergy losses arising from the deviations from the first level idealization only, caused by configuration constraints, are defined as the intrinsic exergy losses. The extra exergy losses which arise from further deviations from the second level idealization, caused by transport rate limitations, are defined as the extrinsic exergy losses. Demonstrated by several example cases of different complex levels, the analysis results can pinpoint what and where to focus on for improvements: (1) design configurations or transport rate limitations, and (2) the specific locations within the operations or processes. As an example, for a de-ethanizer, the improvement measures on configuration-related and transport rate-related design conditions result in a 11.42% reduction of overall column intrinsic exergy loss and a 81.74% reduction of total individual stage extrinsic exergy loss.