Pinch & Exergy Analysis

The Pinch course materials focus on predicting the minimum capital and operating costs prior to design of new processes, as well as retrofitting of existing plants. For a given process, the techniques allow engineers to target the minimum amount of utilities (such as steam, flue gas, cooling water, refrigeration loads and levels, etc.), the minimum number of heat transfer units and the total heat exchange area requirements. Therefore, energy-capital trade-offs are simply checked in targeting stage, and optimum economic conditions are identified for a given process. Issues such as CHP systems, network optimization, mixed materials of construction, retrofit studies, and pressure drop considerations are also addressed.The Exergy sections of the course materials focus on the concept of Exergy, fundamentals of thermodynamics, the energy and second law of thermodynamics, the Exergy quantity, physical and chemical Exergies as well as Exergy analysis of simple unit operations and sub-ambient systems. Also, the applications of Exergy analysis on real unit operations are discussed in details.