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Industrial Energy Scavenging

Problem sketch

Solve with EES. Document all necessary balances.

You have access to heat that is the byproduct of an industrial operation. The heat transfer rate is ˙
QH =
5 kW and the temperature of the source is TH = 500°C. Currently, the heat is just rejected to ambient
temperature at To = 20°C, as shown in the problem sketch.

a. Determine the rate at which entropy is generated by rejecting the heat to ambient.
b. Because you have taken thermodynamics you know that where entropy generation occurs there is a lost
potential to produce work. Evaluate the lost potential for power production by determining the power
that would be produced if the same heat source were used in a reversible, steady state power plant, as
shown below.

Reversible power plant

You have designed the energy scavenging system shown below in order to produce some power using the
heat source. The scavenging system consists of a tank containing water in a two-phase condition. The tank is
heated by the heat source from the industrial operation. The saturated vapor that is produced is fed to a
turbine with efficiency ηt = 0.74. The turbine exhausts to atmospheric pressure, Po = 1 atm. In order to
maintain the tank at a steady operating condition it is fed liquid provided by a reversible pump. The pump takes
in liquid at atmospheric conditions, To and Po , and increases its pressure to the tank pressure, Ptank = 120 psi.
The flow rate of the pump is controlled so that the tank pressure never changes and the level of the liquid
water in the tank never varies. The tank is not perfectly insulated. There is a heat transfer from the tank to the
surroundings given by:

˙
Qamb = U A(Ttank − To )

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where UA = 8.2 W/K and Ttank is the temperature of the contents of the tank.

Energy scavenging system

c. Determine the net power produced by the scavenging system you designed; this is the turbine output
power less the power required by the pump.
d. Determine the total entropy generation rate associated with operating the scavenging system.

The lost work associated with the scavenging system is equal to the maximum power that you could
have obtained, calculated in b), less the net power that you did obtain, calculated in c).

e. Determine the lost work associated with the scavenging system.

f. If you've done the problem right, then the product of the entropy generation, from d), and the ambient
temperature should equal the lost work, from e). Show that this is so. This is the most direct and intuitive
meaning of entropy generation.
g. Determine the total efficiency of the scavenging system.
h. Plot the efficiency of the scavenging system as a function of the tank pressure. You should see that an
optimal pressure exists. Clearly explain why this is so.

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