In the present work, the results are reported of the energy and exergy analyses of three biomass-related processes for electricity generation: the biomass gasification integrated externally fired combined cycle, the biomass gasification integrated dual-fuel combined cycle, and the biomass...

The second law of thermodynamics and, specifically, exergy analysis have been traditionally used for the assessment and optimization of energy systems. Nevertheless, as shown in this paper, exergy could also constitute a powerful tool for the evaluation of mineral commodities. That said, new or...

Over the last years, much attention has been paid to the development of efficient and low-cost power systems for biomass-to-electricity conversion. This paper aims at investigating the design- and part-load performance of an innovative plant based on a wet indirectly fired gas turbine (WIFGT)...

A comparative exergoeconomic analysis is reported for waste heat recovery from a gas turbine-modular helium reactor (GT-MHR) using various configurations of organic Rankine cycles (ORCs) for generating electricity. The ORC configurations studied are: a simple organic Rankine cycle (SORC), an ORC...

Thermodynamics studies the transformations of energy occurring in open systems. Living systems, with particular reference to cells, are complex systems in which energy transformations occur. Thermo-electro-chemical processes and transports occur across their border, the cells membranes. These...

Heat can be collected from local energy sources and concentrated into a relatively small volume, and at a useful working temperature, by using a heat pump as the concentrator. That heat can be stored and utilized at a later date for applications like space heating. The process is doing two...

Exergy destruction in adiabatic pipeline flow of surfactant-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions is investigated in five different diameter pipes. The dispersed-phase (oil droplets) concentration of the emulsions is varied from 0% to 55.14% vol. The emulsions are Newtonian in that the viscosity is...

The concept of “sustainable development” implies that the environmental externalities unavoidably generated by human activities be reduced to a minimum: In fact, the very definition of “sustainability” leads—as it will be briefly discussed in the paper—to a physically measurable...

Following the critical analysis of the concept of “sustainability”, developed on the basis of exergy considerations in previous works, an analysis of possible species “behavior” is presented and discussed in this paper. Once more, we make use of one single axiom: <i>that resource...</i>

Lowering the exergy content of heat required for heating purposes decreases the primary energy consumption. District heating systems are often an important link between facilities that generate heat with low exergy content and consumers. Exergetic efficiency of heat distribution is an important...