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Chemical Exergy

Research · June 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2137.1049

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 1

Lecture in Chemical Exergy

By: Dr. Giuma M. Fellah
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Faculty of Engineering-Al_Fateh University
Tripoli-Libya
E-mail: gfellah2008@yahoo.com

Modeling the Environment

The environment is considered to be in stable equilibrium. Associated with it a
unique temperature, a unique pressure, and a unique chemical potentials of the
substances that making it up. Those values do not change as a result of the processes
under consideration. All substances under consideration are formable from the
substances that making up the environment.

It is advantageous to select as environmental components, the most common

ones, as they occur naturally, since then their concentrations are known with a high
degree of accuracy. By assigning zero exergies to the most common components, others
have positive exergies which reflect their economic values.

Standard Environment and Standard Chemical Exergy

There is no one theoretically correct environment. That means, simply, a

specified environment which is good for one place and one application may not be
good for another place and another application. An extensive study may be required to
determine the environment for an application in a certain location, then a series of
calculations is performed to calculate the exergy values.

It is helpful to select a standard environment-that is, an environment for all

locations and all applications. Exergy relative to this environment can be calculated and
then tabulated for the future use. This exergy is called the Standard Chemical Exergy. It
is claimed the deviation of the standard environment from the actual one, produces a
significant errors, only in a few cases.
 2

Szarugt, J. suggested a standard environment by assuming a standard

temperature and standard pressure and a number of substances, one for each chemical
element. The concentrations of the selected substances are chosen as the average values
in the natural environment. The reference substances are selected from three obvious
regions: gaseous components of the atmosphere; ionic and non ionic substances from
the oceans; solid substances from the outer layer of the earth to a few miles depth.
The chemical energy of a mixture can be calculated such that:

Ψchemical = ∑ N i  µ i,0 − µ i,00 

 
i
Ψchemical is the chemical exergy.
Ni is the number of moles, i =1,2,3,……..
µ i,0 is the chemical potential of the element “i” in the restricted dead state.

µ i,00 is the chemical potential of the element “i” in the environmental dead state.

For a mixture of ideal gas at T0 and P0 , we may write:

µ i , 00 Pi , 00

∫ dµ i = RT0 ∫ d ln( Pi ) , then

µ i ,0 Pi , 0

P 
µ i ,0 − µ i ,00 = RT0 ln i ,0  ,
 Pi ,00 

R is the universal gas constant. Pi,0 and Pi,00 are the partial pressures of the
substance “i” at the restricted dead state and at the environmental dead state
respectively

y P 
µ i ,0 − µ i ,00 = RT0 ln i ,0 0 
 y i ,00 P0 
where yi,0 and yi,00 are the mole fractions of the substance “i” at the restricted
dead state and at the environmental dead state respectively
The chemical exergy can be written as:

y 
Ψchemical = RT0 ∑ N i ln i ,0 
i  y i,00 
 3

For standard environment the values of yi,00 are specified, thus the standard
chemical exergy can be calculated for the given mixture.
per unit mixture mole we may write

y 
ψ chemical = RT0 ∑ y i ,0 ln i ,0 
i  y i ,00 
For pure substance (not a mixture), the value of yi,0 is one, and the formula
becomes:

Ψchemical = − RT0 ln( y i ,00 )

kJ
Given R = 8.3145 , T0 = 298 K, and different values for the mole
kmol. K
fractions at different relative humidity, the chemical exergy is calculated for selected
elements
Substance Φ = 60% ψ chemical Φ = 80% ψ chemical Φ =100% ψ chemical

N2 0.7662 659.84695 0.7613 675.74335 0.7564 691.74239

O2 0.2055 3920.5208 0.2042 3936.2448 0.2029 3952.0691
CO2 0.0003 20098.599 0.0003 20098.599 0.0003 20098.599
H2O 0.0188 9846.2115 0.0250 9140.0141 0.0313 8583.1654
Others 0.0092 0.0092 0.0091

Chemical exergy of Material which is not a reference substance (the

concentration of the material in the environment is unknown), can be calculated by
selecting a reference substance for it, then chemical exergy can be calculated with
respect to this reference substance. For example the concentration of the carbon in the
environment is unknown. The carbon dioxide is selected as the reference substance for
the carbon, hence
C + O 2 ⇒ CO 2
Then the chemical exergy of the carbon can be calculated, such that:

 ( y O2 ,00 ) ν O 2 
ψ c, chemical = ∆G + RT0 ln ν CO 2 

 ( y CO2 ) 
∆G = ν O 2 g O 2 − ν CO 2 g CO 2 , the change in the standard Gibbs function.
 4

g O 2 = 0.0
kJ
g CO2 = −394380
kmol
kJ
then ∆G = 394380
kmol
Using the foregoing table then we may have
Φ = 60% Φ = 80% Φ = 100%
ψ c, chemical = ψ c , chemical = ψ c, chemical =
410558.08 410542.35 410526.53
kJ/kmol kJ/kmol kJ/kmol
Szargut reported the chemical exergy of carbon is 410260 kJ/kmol.

Fuel hydrocarbons
Example: Find the standard chemical exergy of n-Nonane and compare with that
given by Szargut page 306.
C 9 H 20 + 14O 2 ⇒ 9CO 2 + 10H 2 O
∆G = 14g O 2 − 9g CO 2 − 10g H 2 O
kJ
∆G = 5835320
kmol
 ( y O 2 ,00 ) ν O 2 
ψ C 9 H 20 , chemical = ∆G + RT0 ln  
 (y ν CO 2 ν H 2O 
 CO 2 ,00 ) (y H 2O ) 
For relative humidity equal to 60%, the result is
ψ C 9 H 20 , chemical = 6059.7822 kJ / mol
Szargut reported for the same substance
ψ C 9 H 20 , chemical = 6064.9 kJ / mol
The slight difference is due to slight difference in the environmental data.
For water vapor, the change in chemical potential can be found as
µ v , 00 Pv , 00

∫ dµ v = RT0 ∫ d ln( Pv )
µ g ,0 Pg , 0
 5

The lower limit of the integration is selected as the state of the saturated vapor at
the standard temperature. Note also the chemical potential of pure substance is equal to
the Gibbs function, i.e µ g ,0 = g g ,0 . Where

g g ,0 = h g ,0 − T0 sg ,0
y v ,00 P0
µ v ,00 = g g ,0 + RT0 ln( )
Pg ,0
Pg,0 is the saturation pressure corresponding to T0.
The chemical exergy for water vapor becomes
ψ v , chemical = µ g ,0 − µ v ,00
Pg ,0
ψ v , chemical = RT0 ln( )
y v ,00 P0
ψ v , physical = ( h T, P − h g ,0 ) − T0 (sT, P − sg ,0 )
Note also since:
g g ,0 = g f ,0
then
h g ,0 − T0 sg ,0 = h f ,0 − T0 s f ,0
when we have a compressed liquid then:
h T, P = h f , T + v f ( P − Psaturated , T )
Example calculate the chemical and total exergy for water (T0 = 298 K, P0 = 0.1 MPa):
1- superheated steam at 14 MPa and 793 K.
2-saturated vapor at 373 K.
3-saturated liquid at 373 K.
4-copmressed liquid at 373 K and 0.5 MPa
solution
1- from steam tables we get:
kJ kJ
h T, P = 3377.8 sT, P = 6.4610
kg kg. K
kJ kJ
h g ,0 = 2547.2 sg,0 = 8.5580
kg kg. K
Pg,0 = 0.003169 MPa
 6

for relative humidity equal to 60 %

0.003169 kJ
ψ v , chemical = 8.3145 * 298 * ln( ) = 1293.73
0.0188 * 01
. kmol
kJ
ψ v , chemical = 7187
.
kg
kJ
ψ v , physical = (3377.8 − 2547.2) − 298 * (6.4610 − 8.5580) = 1455506
.
kg
kJ
ψ v , total = 1527.38
kg
ψ v , chemical
* 100 = 4.94%
ψ v , total
2-from steam tables we get
kJ kJ
h g ,373K = 26761
. sg,373K = 7.3549
kg kg. K
the chemical exergy is the same as in part (1)
kJ
ψ v , physical = (26761
. − 2547.2) − 298 * ( 7.3549 − 8.5580) = 487.238
kg
kJ
ψ total = 559.29
kg
ψ v , chemical
* 100 = 12.85%
ψ v , total
3-from steam tables we get:
kJ kJ
h f ,298 K = 104.89 s f,298K = 0.3674
kg kg. K
kJ kJ
h f ,373K = 419.04 s f,373K = 13069
.
kg kg. K
the chemical exergy is the same as before.
kJ
ψ f , physical = (419.04 − 104.89) − 298 * (13069
. − 0.3674) = 34.18
kg
kJ
ψ f , total = 106.049
kg
 7

ψ f , chemical
* 100 = 67.77%
ψ f , total
4-from steam tables we get

m3
v f =.0010435
kg
kJ
h 373K ,0.5MPa = 419.04 + 0.0010435 * (0.5 − 010133
. ) * 103 = 419.46
kg
kJ
ψ f , physical = (419.46 − 104.89) − 298 * (13069
. − 0.3674) = 34.60
kg
kJ
ψ f , total = 106.47
kg
The result is almost the same as in part (3).
We conclude from the foregoing example that chemical exergy may has a
substantial contribution to total exergy as the given state approaches the
restricted dead state-that is, as the reduction in the contribution of the physical
exergy to total one.

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