One of the main fortes of emergy analysis is its ability to account for the contribution of ecosystem goods and services, or natural capital. Other holistic analysis methods including life cycle assessment, energy and exergy analysis have ignored this crucial contribution from nature, which is the very basis of sustainability. We introduce a novel approach for an Ecologically-Based Life Cycle A...

This paper adds an exergy analysis of the novel SOLRGT solar-assisted power generation system proposed and described in detail in Part I of this study (Zhang and Lior, 2012, “Use of Low/Mid-Temperature Solar Heat for Thermochemical Upgrading of Energy, Part I: Application to a Novel Chemically-Recuperated Gas-Turbine Power Generation (SOLRGT) System,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, Accepted. ...

Assessments of the feasibility of decoupling energy consumption from economic growth could benefit from an improved understanding of the size, nature and value of different energy flows. This understanding may be enhanced by focusing upon so-called “useful exergy”—a measure of both the quantity and “quality” of energy (defined here as its thermodynamic ability to perform physical work) at the “...

Nowadays, energy plays an important role in the economic and community development of country. Consequently, performance analysis of energy systems is one of the effective methods being used to prevent waste of energy resources. Among the different power generation technologies, steam power plants make a significant contribution to power generation in Iran, with a share of 47 % of electricity g...

Nowadays, energy plays an important role in the economic and community development of country. Consequently, performance analysis of energy systems is one of the effective methods being used to prevent waste of energy resources. Among the different power generation technologies, steam power plants make a significant contribution to power generation in Iran, with a share of 47 % of electrici...

Electrothermal energy storage (ETES) provides bulk electricity storage based on heat pump and heat engine technologies. A subcritical ETES is described in this paper. Based on the extremum principle of entransy dissipation, a geometry model is developed for heat transfer optimization for subcritical ETES. The exergy during the heat transfer process is deduced in terms of entropy production. The...

In this study thermodynamic performance analysis of a combined organic Rankine cycle and ejector refrigeration cycle is carried out for use of low-grade heat source in the form of sensible energy. Special attention is paid to the effects of system parameters including the turbine inlet temperature and turbine inlet pressure on the characteristics of the system such as ratios of mass flow rate, ...

In this paper, a novel poly-generation system for olefin and power production from natural gas is proposed, which integrates hydrocarbon production and the combined cycle power generation. Economic and technological evaluation based on the internal rate of return (IRR) and exergy efficiency is performed. The energy integration results in the proposed poly-generation system for simultaneous prod...

Exergy is demonstrated to be a useful measurable parameter reflecting the state of the ecosystem, and allowing estimation of the severity of its anthropogenous damage. Exergy is shown to have advantages such as good theoretical basis in thermodynamics, close relation to information theory, rather high correlation with others ecosystem goal functions and relative ease of computation. Nowadays ex...