Computers chem. Engng Vol.20, Suppl.,pp.

S1631-S1636, 1996
Copyright© 1996 ElsevierScienceLtd
Pergamon S0098-1354(96)00277-3 Printed in Great Britain.All fightsreserved
0098-1354/96 $15.00+0.00

EXERGY ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES USING AI TECHNIQUES

E.D. DE JONG, H. KEUKEN, E. VAN DER POL, E. DEN DEKKER AND E.J.H. KERCKHOFFSi
Keuken & de Koning BV, P.O. Box 246, 2600 AE Deltt
Phone: ++31-15-2625355, Fax: ++31-15-2626984, The Netherlands
tDellt University of Technology, P.O. Box 356, 2600 AJ Delft, The Netherlands

KEYWORDS: exergy, efficiency, neural networks, artificial intelligence (A.I.)

NOTATION:

E~ kW Chemical exergy
E~ kW Physicalexergy
H kW Enthalpy
kW Enthalpy in reference environment
Q kW Heat
TO K Temperature in reference environment (= 25°C)
S kW/K Entropy (amount of chaos)
So kW/K Entropy in reference environment.

ABSTRACT

Exergy analysis is a general method for efficiency analysis of systems and processes. The use of the
exergy concept and the analysis of ultimate efficiencies of processes is more or less still limited to the
academic world. There are several reasons why its industrial use is still limited. To overcome some of
the difficulties in industrial application of exergy analysis, it was decided to develop a supporting
computer program. The program is aimed specifically at the process industry and enables both experts
and relatively unexperienced people on the subject to apply the concept of exergy in a convenient and
easy manner. Also the benefits of knowledge based systems were investigated. The main function of
the program is to calculate the efficienciesof a process. To assistthe user in judging a process, these
efficiencies will also be evaluated by means of comparison with similar existing processes. W e ave
currently working on the firststeps towards a Case Based Reasoning system. As a similarityfunction
for processes, neural networks are employed.

INTRODUCTION

Critically reviewing energy consumption of processes can be achieved by assessing the efficiency of the processes and
subsequently determining if the efficiency of these operations are liable to be improved. This efficiency could be based
on the degradation of energy quantified by the exergy loss.
The exergy of a system reflects its capacity to cause change [Szargut 1988]. Exergy analysis is a universal method for
efficiency analysis based on the exergy concept. It involves a certain amount of numeric computations and can be applied
to any kind of physical object or system, ranging from cars and households to oil refineries. Its purpose is to analyse and
minimize exergy losses, which can be interpreted as the minimization of primary energy use. When we want to optimize
processes the exergy concept can give us an indication where to look.
Although the basis for the exergy method has been formed by Carrot as early as 1824, its widespread use has yet to
commence. The reason for this might be the mathematical thermodynamic approach that is involved in exergy
calculations, making it difficult to become a widely and easely used technique. Also, the interpretation of exergy
efficien¢ies, as opposed to energy efficiencies, is not very clear to most people and therefore making judgements on the
barns of the exergy efficiency is a major bottleneck to a widespread use.
The purpose of the project was to develop a program that enables users to perform an exergy analysis on industrial
processes, therewith stimulating the use of the exergy concept in the process industry. To support jndgement of tbe
results of the exergy computations a knowledge based system is being developed which compares the process efficiency
with the efficicncies of similar processes.
In this paper, the exergy concept WIU first be explained. Following that, an account is given of its application in process
engineering. This is followed by an explanation of the ideas behind the computer program that has been developed.
Finally, some experiences and scope for application are disenssed.

S1631
Sl632 European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering-f5 Part B

THE EXEBGY CONCEPT

The first law of thermodynamics states that the total energy of a closed system is constant. In other words, energy can
not be lost or generated in a closed system and an energy balance can be made up of every process. The energy
efficiency is based on energy losses but does not relate to the ultimate minimum energy requirement. To incorporate the
ultimate minimum energy requirement of a certain process in an efficiency we can use the second law of
thermodynamics. According to this law the entropy of an isolated system can never decrease. Freely interpreted, the
amount of chaos in the universe will always increase. Although this general tendency cannot be avoided, we should try
to avoid unnecessary transfer of useful energy into useless forms. Another way of putting this is to say that the quality
ofenergy must be retained as much as possible. This quality of energy can be quantified by calculating the conesponding
exergy. To compute the exergy, a reference environment has been defined. The reference environment is the state of
maximum chaos which every system will tend to approach ultimately. It is a model of the situation on the earth at
sealevel and is determined by the temperature (25’ C), the pressure (1 bar) and the ooncentrations of the gasses in the
air, and minerals and other components in the sea and in the ground. The exergy of a system is defined as the maximum
amount of work that can be obtained by bringing it to this refenmce environment. It is a measmz for its potential to cause
change.
There 81~: three types of exergy streams: Material, heat and work. The exergy of a material stream consists mainly of
two parts (neglecting, potential, kinetic, electrical and nuclear exergy):

E=E,,,+E&

with

The exergy of a heat stream is: E = Q*( 1 -T&) (Q = duty), the exergy of a work stream is the same as the work power
(e.g. 1 kW of electric power represents 1 kW exergy)
Using these formulae the exergy of any system can be computed Hence, any system with input and output of substances
can be subject to an exergy analysis. If a description of the system as a black box (figure 1) is available an exergy
analysis can be performed; the internal structi of the system makes no di&rence.

Process

Input output
streams streams
w BLACK BOX Y

mass input- mass output = 0

enthalpy input - enthalpy output = 0
exergy input- exergy output = Irreversibility (exergy loss)

Figure 1 Black box representation of a process

 European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineeringd. Part B S1633

EXERGY EFFICIENCIES

The~betweentheinputandoutputofexergyiscalledtheirrevwsibilityIofthe~ss.Thistermspeaks~r
itself; it equals the amount of energy that is transformed into useless, unordered tbrms of energy during the process.
I = XE,-ZE,,

The rational efficiency q M is defined to overcome the trouble of comparing absolute figures:
XB
q ,.t t>
BE,
If only rational efficiencies are compared, the nature of the substances flowingthrough the proces is of great intknce.
For example, if the rational efficiency of a pump within a process is computed, the result when oil flows through the
pump difkrs greatly tiom the rational efficiency of the pump when water flows through it This effect is caused by the
large diffemnce in the stat&d chemical exergies of these substances; the irreversibility caused by the pump is clearly
tcflected in the rational efficiency when water at standard temperatum and pressure flows through it, because the exergy
of this substance is low and hardly effects the balance. Gil however has a very high exergy,remking the irmversibility
caused by the pump almost unnoticeable. To overcome this problem, other quantities have been defined. The
nonchemical exergy efficiency n p* is much like the rational efficiency, only all chemical exergy is neglected:

Not only the nature of the streams through the process infhznces the irreversibiiity but also the flow; if the throughput
increases, so does the irreversibility. The objective to eliminate the relation between the irreversibility and the size of
the process can be attained by dividing by the total amount of product mass output, yielding the exergy loss per mass
unit of pmduct:
BE,-m3~t
Loss per mada unit =
product mau flow
The aim of an exergy analysis is to determine whether the irreversibility of thepmcess can be reduced. By looking at
a process as a whole the minimum theimodynamical exergy loss can be determined by comparing the exergies of input
of raw materials and output of product streams. In the industrial practice this value can be compared with the amount
of exergy brought into the system through use of utilities (electricity, fuels etc.). This could provide incentives for further
investigations in which the efficiencies of different parts of the process can be computed and evaluated in order to decide
which parts are responsible for this. This successive disaggmgation into subsystems and the subsequent computation
and evaluation of efficiencies of the subsystems can proceed indefinitely but will usually stop at or before the lowest
level in the flow sheet, the basic component level. This is the level of filters, separators, pipes, et cetera. This “zooming
in” into difliit parts of the process gives a good insight in the way that exergy losses are distributed over the whole
process, and big diffemnces as compared to the distribution of energy efficiencies can become clear.

However, in practice, several exergy losses are inavoidable, because they are inherent to the process step. For instance.
if gas is used as primary energy source the exergy efficiency of this conversion will never be greater than about 70 %,
due to the chemical exergy di&rences of natural gas and its combustion gasses. It is therefore neccesary to make a
distinction between avoidable and unavoidable exergy losses. Separation by destillation could yield large exergy losses,
whereas membrane separation can have considerable lower exergy loss. The excess exergy loss of destillation could in
this sense be desciibed as an avoidable exergy loss. Because the outcome of a straightkvard exergy analysis is a
combination of avoidable and inavoidable losses, judgement of the outcome in terms of potential for improvement is
dif&ult en requires a lot of experience on the subject.

For process i&stry it would be more useful to obtain insight in the practically achievable exergy efficiency insteed of
the theoretically achievable efficiency. A way to achieve this is to compare the efficiencies of similar processe s. In an
i&al situation an indication of a reasonable exergy efficiency for a proces can be obtained based on only a few features
of the process.
S1634 European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering-6. Part B

THE USE OF KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEM TO EVALUATE EXERGY EFFICIENCIES

A barrier that keeps process engineers from using exergy analysis to locate inefficient parts of processes is their unabihty
to judge the results; no standard methods can be applied to evaluate the computed efficiencies. This lead us to investigate
the possibilities for obtaining an automated evaluation of exergy efficiencies using Al techniques.
Two ways for evaluation of exergy efficiencies have been considered:

Prediction of the exergy efficiency of a proces

Based on information about the process, an estimate is made of the efficiency the process should have. This
estimate can then be used to judge wether the process is efficient or not; if the estimated efficiency is higher
than the real efficiency, this indicates the process could be improved. With this approach no indication of how
to realize this higher efficiency can be given.

2) Case Based Reasoning approach

Case based reasoning, as described very adequately in [Kolodner 19931, is a methodology for finding a solution
to a problem by adjusting solutions of similsr problems to the problem situation. In a case based reasoning
system, five steps can generally be recognized:

0 Presentation
Description of the case.

0 Retrieval
Using a distance function, similar cases are retrieved from the case-base.
0 Adaptation
The solutions of the similar cases are adapted to fit the case

0 Validation
The solution is validated.

0 System learning
The case, including its solution, is added to the case-base

Translating this to our context, a case is an industrial process. The solution we want to find is a better process design
to produce the same product.

Although the first approach gives an indication of the quality of the design, it does not indicate where snd how this
design could be improved. On the other hand, the method is not very complicated. The second method is somewhat more
complex and may take long to develop, but at least it suggests a direction of where to look for betterment. We therefore
decided to choose the second approach. Questions that arise are:

How should a case be dccribed?

The description of the problem determines the answers that will be found. A simple example: the problem of
producing methanol in an efficient manner, could be described as “Finding an efficient process route to make
methanol out of water, oxygen and gas”, or as “Selecting the right crude materials and the right equipment and
configuration that transforms these materials into methanol efficiently.” The latter description is broader and
will yield all solutions of the first description and probably more, among which we might find more efficient
processes. Broadening our horizon even linther, we could even investigate processes ti-om other branches.
Although this approach is highly unorthodox, we might be triggered by processes from other branches,
stimulating our creativity to find a betterprocess design by transf&ring solutions to these related problem to
our situation. Of course, these processes should always be similar to ours to some degree. This leads us to the
following question:

When should cases be considered similar?

Many case based reasoning systems use straight%onvard distance measures applied to some features. Examples
of these functions arc the Euclidian distance, the Hamming distance and the Chebyshev distance [Kraslawski
et al. 19951. When these functions are used, the features can be assigned weights. Complex knowledge has to
be captured in the similarity function. Therefore we searched for other methods than merely adjusting the
weights of these features, which is the only influence one has over such general distance functions.
 European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering-6 Part B Sl635

In [petley and Edwards 19951, a method using fuzzy methods is applied for the estimation of plant cost based on
similarity of processes. They base their similarity concept on the following charactetistics:

l Number of process units

l Capacity
0 Maximum temperature
l Maximum pressure

Compared to our situation, their concept of similarity is fairly simple; plants are similar whenever their costs are
comparable. Our goal however is not to estimate the efficiency of the process, but to find a better process. This goal has
its implications on our similarity concept. When two plants produce the same substance in different way-s with different
efficiencies, we are interested to know how the more efficient process works. Therefore the similarity function should
find this process in the case base. This results in a more complex concept of similarity.

The concepts of similarity we are looking for lies somewhere between these extremities:

1) Two processes are similar if the same equipment is used in the same contiguration.
2) Two processes are similar if they make the same substances from the same crude materials

Neither of these extremities is desirable. In the first definition, other process routes which result in the same products
are not considered.
The second definition comes near to stating that processes are similar if their exergy efficiencies are the same. Clearly,
this is not desirable either, processes with much lower efficiencies and slightly different process routes are extremely
interesting and should always be recognized as being similar.
In our view, the answer lies in a solution between these two definitions.
Currently, we are experimenting with a neural network approach to capture this similarity concept. A number of
processes were compared by experienced process engineers. Their opinion about the similarity between the processes
was recorded. The idea now is to train a backpropagation neural network to translate the features of two processes into
a similarity between those processes. During this investigation, rules begin to emerge.

We consider combining the neural network with a small rule-based system to finetune the similarity function. When the
similarity function is found to be satifactory, further research to obtain a complete case based reasoning system will
concentrate on the adaption of solutions to the problem case process.

FIRST EXPERIENCES, CONCLUSIONS AND SCOPE FOR APPLICATION

Work so far proved that the judgement of qualities of processes is a complex matter. It has become clear that the only
way to say something worthwhile about the overall efficiency of a process is to compare it with other processes. This
may seem obvious, but it turned out to be quite difficult to answer the question when one can and one can not compare
two different processes. For instance process engineers Seem to see quite some similarity when flow-sheets or unit
operations overlap and they see a lot less similarity when one is able to produce the same kind of product out of the same
feedstock in a totally different way. It is probably impossible to find the ultimate similarity function between two
different processes. Nevertheless we experienced that based on basic process charactetistics, it was possible to create
workable similarity functions with a neural network approach. Clearly, judgements will improve when the number of
similar cases in the case base increases. Therefore, application of this new approach should preferably start with specific
businesses or large sites with many similar processes,

For situations where precise courses of action can be defined in advance, for instance for step by step process design
systems, rule based systems are considered to be a more appropriate choice.
The method that has been developed is usell for situations where overall judgements have to be made.
In general, judgements of generic overall process qualities should be used on existing processes or existing designs as
a method to identify weak spots and to find scope for further improvement.
S1636 European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering-6. Part B

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[Hecht-Nielsen 19901
Hecht-Nielsen, R. 1990. Neurocomputing. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. USA.

[Kolodner 19931
Kolodner, J. 1993. Case-based Reasoning. Morgan Katian Publishers, Inc., San Mateo, CA.

[Kraslawski et al. 19951

Kraslawski, A.; T. Koiranen; L. Nystram. 1995. “Case-based xeasoning system for mixing equipment selection.” In
Computers them. Engng, Vol. 19, 1995, Suppl., pp. S821-S826.

lpetley and Edwards 19951

Petley, G.J. and D.W. Edwards. 1995. “Further developments in chemical plant cost estimating using fuzzy matching.”
In Computers them. Ekgng, Vol. 19, 1995, Suppl., pp. S675-S680.

[Szargut et al. 19881

Szargut, J.; D.R. Morris; F.R. Steward. 1988. Exergy analysis of thermal, chemical and metallurgical processes.
Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, New York.