Second-law performance of heat exchangers for waste heat recovery

J.-Y. San

Energy, 2010, vol. 35, issue 5, 1936-1945

Abstract: Exergy change rate in an ideal gas flow or an incompressible flow can be divided into a thermal exergy change rate and a mechanical exergy loss rate. The mechanical exergy loss rates in the two flows were generalized using a pressure-drop factor. For heat exchangers using in waste heat recovery, the consumed mechanical exergy is usually more valuable than the recovered thermal exergy. A weighing factor was proposed to modify the pressure-drop factor. An exergy recovery index (ηII) was defined and it was expressed as a function of effectiveness (ɛ), ratio of modified heat capacity rates (C∗), hot stream-to-dead-state temperature ratio, cold stream-to-dead-state temperature ratio and modified overall pressure-drop factor. This ηII–ɛ relation can be used to find the ηII value of a heat exchanger with any flow arrangement. The ηII−Ntu and ηII−Ntuh relations of cross-flow heat exchanger with both fluids unmixed were established respectively. The former provides a minimum Ntu design principle and the latter provides a minimum Ntuh design principle. A numerical example showed that, at a fixed heat capacity rate of the hot stream, the heat exchanger size yielded by the minimum Ntuh principle is smaller than that yielded by the minimum Ntu principle.

Keywords: Exergy; Heat exchanger; Exergy recovery index; Waste heat recovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:35:y:2010:i:5:p:1936-1945

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2010.01.007

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