This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of a biochemical process for the production of bioethanol from a lignocellulosic feedstock. The major inefficiencies in the process are identified as: i) the combustion of lignin for process heat and power production and ii) the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process. As lignin is not converted to ethanol and lignin has a high value o...

This communication presents finite time thermodynamic optimization of irreversible cascaded refrigeration and heat pump cycles having source/sink thermal reservoirs of finite heat capacitance. A general expression for the optimum coefficient of performance of the refrigerator/heat pump is derived at minimum power input and given cooling/heating load conditions, respectively. External irreversib...

Common approaches to the simulation of Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHEs) assume heat transfer in circulating fluid and grout to be in a quasi-steady state and ignore fluctuations in fluid temperature due to transport of the fluid around the loop. However, in domestic ground source heat pump systems, the heat pump and circulating pumps switch on and off during a given hour; therefore the effect of...