The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Attempts to Characterize Waste Impact Using Exergy
Exergy can … be viewed as a measure of the departure of a substance from equilibrium with a specified reference environment, which is often modeled as the actual environment…. The exergy of an emission to the environment, therefore, is a measure of the potential of the emission to change or impact the environment. The greater the exergy of an emission, the greater is its departure from equilibrium with the environment, and the greater may be its potential to change or impact the environment
3. Applying Exergy to Characterize Resources
3.1. Linking Exergy to Resource Value
3.2. Problems with Relating Exergy to Resource Value
3.2.1. Theoretical problem—the different perspectives of exergy
3.2.2. Empirical problem—the lack of empirical validation
Substance | kc | kch | Substance | kc | kch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ag | 7,042 | 10 | Cs | N.A. | 1 |
Al | 2,250 | 8 | Cu | 343 | 80.2 |
As | 80 | 10 | F | 2 | 1 |
Au | 422,879 | 1 | Fe | 97 | 5.3 |
Ba | N.A. | 1 | Ga | N.A. | 1 |
Be | 112 | 1 | Ge | N.A. | 1 |
Bi | 90 | 10 | Hf | N.A. | 1 |
Cd | 804 | 10 | Hg | 1,707 | 10 |
Co | 1,261 | 10 | In | N.A. | 10 |
Cr | 37 | 1 | K | 39 | 1 |
4. Deconstructing the Fundamentals of Exergy
- The compatibility limitations between exergy quality and resource quality
- The inability of exergy to characterize non work-producing resources via the concentration exergy
- The limitations due to the derivation of exergy
- Problems regarding the exergy reference environment
4.1. The Compatibility Limitations between Exergy Quality and Resource Quality
the quality of energy is related to the amount of useful work that can be obtained by bringing the system into equilibrium with its reference environment.
4.2. Using Concentration Exergy to Determine Useful Work Production
4.3. Problems with the Fundamental Derivation of Exergy
- Requirement 1: Both the system and the reference environment are in a state of internal equilibrium, as mentioned in the first Bejan quote.
- Requirement 2: For every chemical species, there exists a semi-permeable membrane, as mentioned in the second Bejan quote.
- Requirement 3: Every chemical species present in the system is also present in the reference environment. Without this requirement, even the minutest quantity of a chemical species would have infinite exergy, as was explained above.
Rethinking the derivation of non-flow chemical exergy
4.4. Problems with Formulating the Reference Environment
“The reference environment is in stable equilibrium, and has all parts at rest relative to one another. No chemical reactions can occur between the reference environment components. Further, the reference environment acts as an infinite system, is a sink and source for heat and materials, and experiences only internally reversible processes in which its intensive state remains unaltered (i.e., its temperature, pressure and chemical potentials for each of the components present remains constant)”.[45]
“[The natural, or ecosystem environment is] an open, hierarchical, self-designing system of subsystems that in turn are an interconnected, interrelated, interacting network of information generating direct and indirect effects.[81]
5. Discussion—Synthesizing the Challenges to Exergy
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References and Notes
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Gaudreau, K.; Fraser, R.A.; Murphy, S. The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact. Sustainability 2009, 1, 1444-1463. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1041444
Gaudreau K, Fraser RA, Murphy S. The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact. Sustainability. 2009; 1(4):1444-1463. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1041444
Chicago/Turabian StyleGaudreau, Kyrke, Roydon A. Fraser, and Stephen Murphy. 2009. "The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact" Sustainability 1, no. 4: 1444-1463. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1041444