Exergy analysis in ProSimPlus® simulation software: A focus on exergy efficiency evaluation

•A set of expressions for calculating exergy of material streams is proposed.•A general methodology for exergy analysis in ProSimPlus® is then presented.•A automatic way for computing exergy efficiency in ProSimPlus® is provided.•An ammonia plant case illustrates the use of the ProSimPlus exergy module.

On industrial sites, the promotion of best practices to enable an efficient utilization of energy has emerged as one of the major point of focus. Among the different approaches existing to improve industrial processes, the exergy analysis, although limited to the academic world, has been shown to be a powerful tool for improving energy efficiency of thermal and chemical systems. The purpose of this paper is then to present the use of the ProSimPlus® modelling and simulation environment as an exergy analysis computer-aided tool. Expressions implemented in the simulator for computing exergies in its various forms are presented. The adopted approach for calculating exergy efficiency in a systematic way is also exposed; it combines the fuel-product concepts to the transit exergy concept. ProsimPlus® exergy module's capabilities are illustrated through the example of an ammonia production plant.