Title: Assessment and apply of an enhanced exergy analysis for an argon liquefaction system

Authors: Arif Karabuga; Zafer Utlu

Addresses: Sustainable Energy Systems Application, and Research Center, Halic University, 34445, Istanbul, Turkey ' Engineering Faculty, Mechanical Engineering Department, Halic University, 34445, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: Argon basically and widely liquefied by three different liquefaction methods such as cryogenic, pressure swing adsorption, and membrane. The cryogenic method with the highest purity rate constitutes the method of this study. In the present work, conventional and enhanced exergy analyses were applied to the liquefaction process of argon. In the enhanced exergy analysis, splitting the exergy destruction into endogenous/exogenous and avoidable/unavoidable parts represents a new direction. In the study, forward exergy analysis is performed for each component and endogenous, exogenous, unavoidable, and avoidable values of these components were calculated. When the convectional exergy analysis is examined, the exergy efficiency of the argon liquefaction system is calculated as 51.77%. When the enhanced exergy analysis of the system is examined, it is found that the highest exergy destruction occurred in the turbine as 614.3 kW. Furthermore, the highest endogenous exergy destruction was found as 494 kW (80.4%) in the turbine.

Keywords: enhanced exergy analysis; liquefaction system; argon; cryogenic.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2021.112998

International Journal of Exergy, 2021 Vol.34 No.2, pp.143 - 158

Received: 17 Oct 2019
Accepted: 04 May 2020
Published online: 15 Feb 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article