Exergy analysis on the irreversibility of rotary air preheater in thermal power plant

Energy recovery devices can have a substantial impact on process efficiency and their relevance to the problem of conservation of energy resources is generally recognized to be beyond dispute. One type of such a device, which is commonly used in thermal power plants and air conditioning systems, is the rotary air preheater. A major disadvantage of the rotary air preheater is that there is an unavoidable leakage due to carry over and pressure difference. There are gas streams involved in the heat transfer and mixing processes. There are also irreversibilities, or exergy destruction, due to mixing, pressure losses and temperature gradients. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is based from the second law of thermodynamics, which is to build up the relationship between the efficiency of the thermal power plant and the total process of irreversibility in the rotary air preheater using exergy analysis. For this, the effects of the variation of the principal design parameters on the rotary air preheater efficiency, the exergy efficiency, and the efficiency of the thermal power plant are examined by changing a number of parameters of rotary air preheater. Furthermore, some conclusions are reached and recommendations are made so as to give insight on designing some optimal parameters.