163

Book Reviews

Ihe Exergy Method of Thermal plant Analysis from appropriate branches of mathematics (set theory,
by T. J. Kotas; published by Butterworths, L,endon, vector and matrix calculus, numerical methods). Ninety-
Boston, Durban, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, one literature references cover the period 1960-1980.
Wellington, 1985; price X45.00; ISBN 408-01350-8 No skill in computer programming is expected from the
reader.
The exergetic analysis of thermal plants is a well- The content of the respective chapters is based on the
established method in Germany. Scientists and engineers author’s experience gamed when lecturing students at
from the English speaking countries have long hesitated Warsaw Technical University and engineers from the
to apply this powerful thermodynamic tool by which Polish machine building industry. The author provides
the restricting statements of the second law of thermo- the reader with the necessary mathematical basis of
dynamics can be clearly formulated and relatively easily optimal design as well as practical guidance for the use
applied to problems in energy engineering and chemical of optimization methods in design problems. Whereas
engineering. The book by T. J. Kotas serves as a detailed problems with discrete variables (arising from equipment
and comprehensive introduction to the subject. Its main standardization) are covered extensively, the optimiza-
chapters comprise a review of fundamentals, basic tion of operating conditions of process equipment is not
exergy concepts, elements of plant analysis, exergy considered.
analysis of simple processes, examples of thermal and The book can be recommended to engineers employ-
chemical plant analysis, and thermoeconomic applica- ed in design offices or R&D divisions of the process
tions of exergy. equipment industry. It may also prove useful for
The well-organized book is easy to read and suited graduate students in courses of process equipment
for teaching purposes and for self-study. It is regrettable design,
that the author fails to give a general definition of the
exergy concept. On the other hand, the reader is intro- H. HOFMANN
duced to almost all conceivable applications of the
exergy method. In connection with chemical exergy, one
misses a thorough discussion of the problem of reference
states which is highly important for the evaluation of Fundamentals and Applications of Ion Exchange
the exergy of fuels and other chemically reacting sub- NATO ASI Series, Series E: Applied Sciences -No.
stances. 98; published by Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, The
Netherlands; price, Dfl. 175 (cloth)/US $65.60,
H. D. BAEHR $48.50 (cloth); ISBN 90-247-3229-8

Volume 98 of the NATO ASI Series presents a collec-

Optimal Design of Process Equipment tion of papers which were held at the 1982 NATO
by K. Urbaniec, translation editor C. McDermott; Advanced Study Institute Seminar on ‘Mass transfer and
Ellis Horwood Ltd., Chichester, U.K., 1986; 243 pp.; kinetics of ion exchange’. It includes contributions from
price S35 the participants of two round-table discussions. The
seminar was subdivided into different sections, each
The aim of this book is to provide the reader with a consisting of main lectures and contributions from the
convenient starting point in the application of optimiza- audience according to the topic of the section. The main
tion methods for the lay-out and design of process lectures are published in Vol. 71, some of the papers on
equipment used in the chemical, sugar and power kinetics in Reactive Polymers. The residual papers are
industries. It consists of three parts. Chapters 1 and 2 summarized in Vol. 98. They are arranged in the
(25 pages) are devoted to a review of related design sequence as given at the conference and cover a wide
problems and the philosophy of optimal design respec- range of fundamental as well as practical aspects. There-
tively. Chapters 336 (93 pages) introduce the funda- fore the editors have probably chosen the title Funda-
mentals of design optimization (mathematical models, mentals and Applications of Ion Exchange, which, how-
properties of optimization problems, methods of ever, is slightly misleading. Since the original framework
extremum finding and interpretation of optimization of the different sections is no longer obvious, it would
results by sensitivity analysis), whereas in chapters 7-11 have been advantageous to leave the original order of
(86 pages) characteristic problems in optimization of the papers and to arrange them according to different topics
design of process equipment are illustrated by numerous as, for example, indicated by the title of this volume.
examples associated with selected groups of commonly Owing to the character of the conference as a seminar,
used equipment (mechanical elements, shells, heat most of the contributions do not show new results but
transfer equipment, etc.). Neither the optimal selection summarize other papers by the same authors, pre-
of equipment structure nor the optimal control of published elsewhere.
process equipment is considered. Three appendices,
given at the end of the book, review some selected topics W. H. HijLL

0255-2701/87/$3.50 Chem. Eng. Process., 21 (1987) 163 0 Elsevier Sequoia/Printed in The Netherlands