Efficiency and sustainability in the energy and chemical industries PDF
Preview Efficiency and sustainability in the energy and chemical industries
Efficiency and Sustainability in the Energy and Chemical Industries Jakob de Swaan Arons Hedzer van der Kooi Delft University of Technology Delft, The Netherlands Kr ish n an Sank ar anaraya na n ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Fairfax, Virginia, U.S .A . Z.M. L A.. R .. C -E -I -. MARCELD EKKEIRN,C . NEWY ORK * BASEL DEKKER Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. Coverartist:SonaRaeissi. Althoughgreatcarehasbeentakentoprovideaccurateandcurrentinformation, neithertheauthor(s)northepublisher,noranyoneelseassociatedwiththispublica- tion,shallbeliableforanyloss,damage,orliabilitydirectlyorindirectlycausedor allegedtobecausedbythisbook.Thematerialcontainedhereinisnotintendedto providespecificadviceorrecommendationsforanyspecificsituation. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarksandareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto infringe. 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Neitherthisbooknoranypartmaybereproducedortransmittedinanyformorby any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission inwritingfromthepublisher. Currentprinting(lastdigit): 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PRINTEDINTHEUNITEDSTATESOFAMERICA Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. Preface For many of us the energy crisis of the 1970s and 1980s is still fresh in our memory.Thecrisiswasofpoliticalorigin,notarealshortage.Thedeveloped countriesrespondedbyfocusingonincreasingenergyefficiency,athomeand inindustry,andbytakinginitiativestomakethemlessdependentonliquid fossilsfromtheMiddleEast.Morethaneverbefore,attentionshiftedtocoal as an alternative energy resource—its exploration, production, transporta- tion, and marketing. Massive research and development programs were initiatedtomakeavailablecleanandefficientcoalutilizationandmoreeasily handled materials as gaseous and liquid conversion products. Obviously, large multinational oil companies played an important role in these initia- tives,astheyconsideredenergy,notoil,theirultimatebusiness. At the same time there was growing concern worldwide for the envi- ronment. With the industrial society proceeding at full speed with mass productionandconsumption,theworldbecameawarethatthiswasaccom- paniedbymassemissionofwaste.Airpollution,waterpollution,deteriora- tion of the soil, and so forth, became topics that started worrying us immensely. The ‘‘irreversibility’’ of most of our domestic and industrial ac- tivitiesseemedtoaskapriceforremediationthatcouldbecometoohigh,if notforthepresentgenerations,thenforlaterones.Thisinsightdevelopeda senseofresponsibilitythatwentbeyondpolitical,national,orotherspecific interests and seemed to be shared by all aware world citizens. Earlier, and triggeredbyactivitiesoftheClubofRome,computersimulationsshowedthe possiblelimitstogrowthforagrowingworldpopulationwithlimitedsources. The1987BrundtlandReport,‘‘OurCommonFuture,’’emphasizedourres- ponsibility for future generations and pointed to the need for ‘‘sustainable development.’’ This showed the emergence of a trilemma—with economic growth,needforresources,andcarefortheenvironmentinadelicatebalance. TheSunasarenewablesourceofenergybecamemoreandmoreprominent, as exemplified in Japan’s massive New Sunshine Programme and by the Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. emergence of ‘‘green chemistry,’’ a development to fulfill our needs for chemicalsinasustainableway. Ourdesiretowritethisbookoriginatedintheaforementionedneedto increasetheefficiencyofindustrialprocesses.Thermodynamics,inparticular theSecondlaw,seemedindispensabletofindone’swayinalabyrinth—orso itseemed—ofresourceandprocessalternatives.Butwiththeemergenceofthe worldwide call for sustainability, our interest extended to include factors otherthanefficiencytodealwiththisconcept.Indoingso,wediscoveredthat innatureenergyandchemistryaremoreorlesssynonymousandthatnature hasitsownwaystobesustainable.Howevercomplexitswaysandprocesses, nature is the example and the source of inspiration for developing from an industrialsocietytowhatsomeliketocallametabolicsociety:asocietythat makesuseofanimmaterialenergysourceandrecyclesitsproducts,including its waste. This is not only a fascinating challenge but, more importantly, a necessity! Efficiency will bean important factor, as there areseriousindica- tionsthattheworld’secologicalopportunitytoexploittheSunasaresourceis limitedandmayalreadyhavebeenspent. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FirstwewishtoexpressourappreciationtoEmeritusProfessorKazuoKo- jimafromNihonUniversityinTokyoforhisgreatinterestinthesubjectand hissteadyeffortstoconvinceusthatweshouldtrustourworkandinsightsto writethisbook. We acknowledge AKZO Nobel for trusting us to teach its process engineerstheprinciplesofthethermodynamicefficiencyofchemicalprocesses andDSMasthefirstmultinationalcompanytoletusapplytheseprinciplesto its urea synthesis process. This triggered many research activities in our group,andwebenefitedfromtheexcellenttextbookbySmithandVanNess and the small monograph by J. D. Seader. Deeper insights into irreversible thermodynamics was obtained from the monographs by Prigogine and Katchalsky. Our interest in sustainability was triggered by Unilever’s Hans Broekhoff,whoaskedusthequestionthatwashalftheanswer.Yoda’sbook Trilemma,onsustainabledevelopment,wasaneye-openerandmovedustoa higher level of abstraction in our thinking. Isao Shiihara, former general manageroftheOsakaNationalResearchInstitute,introducedustoJapan’s impressive new energy research and development programs and institutes. HermanvanBekkumintroducedustogreenchemistryandAlexisDeVosto the thermodynamics of solar radiation. The invaluable monographs by Schro¨dinger,Fast,Morowitz,andLehningerintroducedustotheconceptsof energyflowinbiology.StephanBaumga¨rtnerandRobertAyrescontributed Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. toourinsightintoaspectsofeconomicsinsustainabledevelopmentthanksto theunsurpassedopportunitiesoftheGordonResearchConferences. OurPh.D.studentSonaRaeissigaveustheinspirationforthedesignof thebook’scover.ManagementassistantAstridBarrowassumedpatientlybut determinedly the responsibility for the electronic processing of our text. Fi- nally, we wish to mention the numerous students and postdoctoral fellows who engaged themselves with great enthusiasm in the many studies that ul- timatelybecamepartofoureducationinthisapplicationfromthewonderful worldofthermodynamics. JakobdeSwaanArons HedzervanderKooi KrishnanSankaranarayanan Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. Contents Prefaceiii Introductionix I.Basics 1.Introduction1 2.ThermodynamicsRevisited7 3.Energy ‘‘Consumption’’andLostWork23 4.EntropyGeneration:CauseandEffect33 5.ReductionofLostWork47 II.ThermodynamicAnalysisofProcesses 6.Exergy,aConvenientConcept59 7.ChemicalExergy73 8.SimpleApplications83 III.CaseStudies 9.EnergyConversion97 10.Separations123 11.ChemicalConversion147 12.ANoteonLifeCycleAnalysis167 IV.ProcessSustainability 13.SustainableDevelopment175 14.EfficiencyandSustainabilityintheChemicalProcess Industry203 15.SolarEnergyConversion215 vii Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. 16.BiomassProductionandConversion231 17.GreenChemistry247 18.Economics,Ecology,andThermodynamics257 V.FutureTrends 19.FutureTrends285 Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. Introduction Somewhere in the South Pacific a group of castaways reaches an uninhab- ited island after a storm destroyed their ship. They settle on this island but earlyondisputesoverthewayoflifesplitsthemintotwogroups.Onegroup settles in the North and the other group settles in the South. A small creek splits the island in half and marks their spheres of existence. The group in the North lives a lavish life, builds many wooden houses, and consumes the bounty of the island. The group in the South lives a slightly less lavish life, but returns to the land whatever it takes (resource ‘‘recycling’’). When a tree is felled for lumber purposes, a set of trees is planted to replace the oldoneandensurefuturelumber.Whenseedsareeaten,afixedproportion is planted to ensure harvest the next year. The group in the North, on the other hand, consumes without replenishing and after ten years has turned the North side of the island into a desolate wasteland where the annual rainfall causes mudslides, and is also faced with a famine since no seeds or fruits are left. This group then decides to make peace with the Southerners and adopts their way of life. Today, the way the Northerners consumed is very similar to our con- sumption habits. We consume but we do not always return to ensure a fu- ture supply (i.e., consumption of fossil fuels increases CO levels; felling of 2 treeswithoutreplantingremovesCO sinksanddisruptstheecosystem).But 2 justliketheNortherners,atsomepoint,thebountywillstopforavarietyof possiblereasons.Unfortunately,mankinddoesnothaveafriendlyneighbor whocanhelpusout.Wemusthelpourselvesbyadoptingasustainableway of life. Angela Merkel, physicist and former German Minister of Environ- ment,definedsustainabledevelopmentasusingresourcesnofasterthanthey can regenerate themselves and releasing pollutants to no greater extent than naturalresourcescanassimilatethem.Livingsystemsprevailinapermanent state of nonequilibrium with respect to their environment and sustain this state by a permanent energy source. Ultimately, the Sun is responsible for Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. the energy of living systems (photosynthesis of plants, which stand at the base of the food pyramid). Solar radiation sustains the biosphere of our planet. In a way, our planet is a metabolic society, a living entity that absorbs energy from the Sun and sustains life by material cycles involving CO , H O, etc., which are consumed and emitted by various metabolic 2 2 society members. Unfortunately, present-day human civilization is not sustainable, since material cycles are no longer closed, but very much open andhaveupsetthebalanceinthemetabolicsociety.Perhapsmancanlearn from nature and become part of the metabolic society. Jakob de Swaan Arons Hedzer van der Kooi Krishnan Sankaranarayanan Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc. 1 Introduction Learnthefundamentalsofthegameandsticktothem.Band-Aidreme- diesneverlast. —JackNicklaus Sometimeagowewereteachinganadvancedthermodynamicscourseto processtechnologistsofAKZONOBEL.Subjectsincludedphaseequilib- ria,thethermodynamicsofmixtures,andmodelsfrommolecularthermody- namicsappliedtoindustrialsituations.Thequestionwasraisedwhethersome timecouldbespentonthesubjectof ‘‘exergyanalysisofprocesses, ’’thena subjectwithwhichwewerelessfamiliarbecauseenergy-relatedissuesfell lesswithinthescopeofouractivities.Wefellbackonasmallmonographby Seader[1]andtheexcellenttextbookbySmithandVanNess[2],whodedi- catedthelastchapternotsomuchtoexergybuttothethermodynamicanaly- sisofprocesses.Conceptssuchasidealwork,entropyproduction,andlost workwereclearlyrelatedtotheefficientuseofenergyinindustrialprocesses. Thetwoindustrialexamplesgiven—oneontheliquefactionofnaturalgas, theotheronthegenerationofelectricityinanaturalgas-firedpowerstation— lentthemselvesverywellforillustrativepurposesbutalsoforapplyingthe exergyconceptandexergyflowdiagrams[3,4].Thelatterconceptsquiteap- pealedtousbecauseoftheirinstrumentalandvisualpowerinillustratingthe fateofenergyinprocesses(Fig.1). After this experience in industry, we started to include the subject in advancedcoursestoourownchemicalengineeringstudentsinDelft.Acol- leaguehadpointedouttousthatthedesignofaprocessismorevaluableif the process has also been analyzed for its energy efficiency. For mechanical engineers, who were traditionally more engaged in energy conversion pro- cesses, this was obvious; for chemical engineers, until then more concerned withchemicalconversionprocesses,thiswasrelativelynew.Thesubjectgrew in popularity with our students because it became more and more obvious thatthestateoftheenvironmentandenergyconsumptionarecloselyrelated Copyright © 2004 Marcel Dekker, Inc.
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