Availability Analysis

Ideal Work and Actual Work

In any process requiring work input, there is an absolute minimum work input required to achieve the process change. In a work-producing process, there is an absolute maximum possible work output for a given change of the work-producing medium. The limit is Ideal Work w ideal in both cases. This is work in or out for a reversible process. Actual Work w is compared to wideal.

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Heat Transfer with Surroundings

In the ideal process, all changes are reversible. All heat transfer between system and surroundings is reversible. To achieve reversibility, the heat transfer must be at the temperature of the surroundings, T0. To achieve reversible heat transfer between the system and surroundings at T0, it may be necessary to add reversible Carnot cycle heat pumps or engines. Since they are cyclic and no net change of condition occurs, they do not contribute to overall property changes in the system. It is possible (but not necessary) to detail all the heat exchanges between system and surroundings in the process which achieves ideal work.

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Calculating wideal
Take a system at an initial state 1 (T 1, p1). To generate wideal, the system is brought to the surrounding state 0 (T0, p0). From the 1st law, h + g z + (u2) = q w and since all heat transfer is at T 0, q = T 0 s Assuming that the kinetic and potential energy terms are negligible, the specific ideal work is wideal = T0 s h wideal = T0(s0 s1) (h0 h1) This is the maximum useful work output of a work-producing flow process or the minimum work input to a work-consuming flow process. Ideal work is also known as Availability or Exergy, . Availability charts exist but are of limited use since depends on temperature and pressure of both material and surroundings.
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Exergy/Enthalpy Chart for Air

600

P=40MP a

20

10
450

2
300

0.4

150

0.2

0.1

0.05
0

-150 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

h (kJ/kg)

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Availability in Process Analysis

Availability can be used to answer questions such as: What is the maximum work that can be generated from a supply of CO2 at 350C and 18 bara? What is the minimum work needed to liquefy methane gas initially at 20C, all at 1bara? Availability analysis shows the absolute best possible performance of a process, the performance which cannot be exceeded.

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Example 1
Determine the maximum work that can be obtained from a flow of N2 at 500K and 50bara. T0 is 25C and p0 is 1bara. = T0 s h = T0(s0 s1) (h0 h1) Data can be obtained from cp or thermodynamic charts or tables. Using cp :
h0 h1 =

T0

T1

c p dT

) (
p1

p0

p1

pdv

T0

=A(298-500)+B(2982-5002)/2+C(2983-5003)/3 + D(2984-5004)/4-R0T0 ln(p1/p0)= -15611 kJ/kmol

s 0 s1 =
T0

cp T

T1

dT

=A ln(298/500)+B(298-500) +C(298 2-5002)/2 + D(2983-5003)/3 = -15.16 kJ/kmol.K =T0(s0 s1)(h0 h1) =298(-15.16)-(-15611) =11093kJ/kmol or 396 kJ/kg +ve so work output. Alternatively, using chart data: State T(K) p(bar) h(kJ/kg) s(kJ/kg.K)
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1 0

500 298

50 1

520 310

6.2 6.85

=T0(s0 s1)(h0 h1)= 404kJ/kg Using the Exergy chart for air ( N2): State 1 0 T(K) 500 298 p(bar) 50 1 (kJ/kg) 380 0

So the change in availability is 380 kJ/kg.

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Example 2
Many real processes neither start nor end at the ambient condition. Find the minimum work needed to liquefy methane gas at 112K, 1bara (saturated liquid, state 2) from 300K, 100bara (state 1). Find the minimum work input from the change of availability, 1-2= (T0(s0 s1)(h0 h1))(T0(s0 s2)(h0 h2)) = T0(s2-s1) (h2-h1) Obtaining data from tables (Perry): State 1 (g) 2 (ls) T(K) 300 112 p(bar) 100 1 h(kJ/kg) 1200 285 s(kJ/kg.K) 11.63 4.92

So, taking T0=300K, 1-2= -1098 kJ/kg This is ve so it is work input.

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