Exergy Optimization of a Moving Bed Heat Exchanger

Abstract

The MBHE proposed can be analyzed as a crossflow heat exchanger where one of the phases is a moving granular medium. In the present work the exergy analysis of the MBHE is carried out over operation data of the exchanger obtained in two ways: a numerical simulation of the stationary problem and a simplified analysis. The numerical simulation is carried over the two steady state energy equations (fluid and solid), involving (for the fluid) the convection heat transfer to the solid and the diffusion term in the flow direction, and (for the solid) only the convection heat transfer to the fluid. The simplified analysis followed the well-known e-NTU method, taking the equipment as a crossflow heat exchanger with both fluids unmixed.