Exergy analysis of food drying processes

Abstract

It is well known that micro-level system parameters may have some great impact on macro-level energy aspects, the environment, and sustainability. Of course, if one wants to approach these thermodynamically, there are two ways: energy analysis through the first law of thermodynamics and exergy analysis through the second law of thermodynamics. Exergy analysis is an essential tool to expose the impacts of a power generating device on exergy-based sustainability; sustainability is necessary to overcome current ecological, economic, and developmental problems (Dincer and Rosen, 2005). In this regard, some new exergy-based sustainability parameters for a PEM fuel cell have been developed and studied parametrically to investigate how they will help measure the level of environmental impact and sustainable development (Midilli and Dincer, 2009). These types of parameters may also be applied to other energy-related systems.