Thermo-ecology. Exergy as a Measure of Sustainability

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Energy, Resources, Ecology and Measures of Sustainability 3. Fundamentals of Exergy Analysis 4. Life cycle of the product 5. Thermo-Ecological Cost (TEC) based on Exergy Analysis 6. Applications of TEC 7. Pro-ecological tax 8. Summary

Authors

Wojciech Stanek Full Professor, Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Poland. Prof. Wojciech Stanek, PhD., DSc is full professor at the Institute of Thermal Technology, Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Silesian University of Technology. He gained his professional experience at the same University where he successively developed his scientific career as a research assistant, assistant professor and associate professor. Currently, he is the Director of Institute of Thermal Technology. He is one of the world's leading experts in the field of exergy. His main areas of interests are energy systems as well as energy and resources conversion technologies. He has worked on mathematical modelling of energy conversion and management in industrial processes, cumulated energy and exergy consumption, thermo-ecological cost method, thermo-economic issues of environmental protection, life cycle analysis and control systems for power and cogeneration plants using advanced measurement data validation. He has published more than 130 papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings. He has served as a subject editor in Energy - The International Journal since 2010. He has been a member of the Commission of Energy of Polish Academy of Sciences since 1999. Pawel Gladysz Assistant Professor, Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland. Pawel Gladysz has been an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Energy and Fuels (AGH University of Science and Technology, Krak�w, Poland) since October 2017. Before that he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Thermal Technology (Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland) where he is still involved in industrial research projects. His current research activities cover mathematical modelling and optimisation of energy systems (mainly clean coal and cogeneration technologies) and environmental analysis (including Thermo-Ecological Cost and Life Cycle Assessment). At the moment he is coordinating a research project regarding the determination of the structure of an integrated energy system (biomass-fired CHP plant with CO2 capture and utilization). Previously, he has been involved in two research projects focused on the oxy-fuel combustion technology, one devoted to high-efficient cogeneration technologies and one on Stirling engines optimisation. Since April 2016 he has been a member of the Polish Member Committee of the World Energy Council. Moreover, for the last 7 years he has conducted seminars and lectures at the Silesian University of Technology (Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering) focusing on process modelling of energy systems, environmental and economic analysis and energy management. Lucyna Czarnowska Assistant Professor, Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Poland. Dr. Lucyna Czarnowska has been an assistant professor at Silesian University of Technology since 2014. She has extensive experience in thermo-ecological cost, cumulative energy and exergy, dispersion of pollutants in the air and external environmental cost. She completed her Ph.D. (2014) in the Energy Engineering in the field of Thermal energy and environmental impact assessment fulfilling the conditions of label of European Doctorate. The work was prepared at both Institute of Thermal Technology at Silesian University of Technology and National Technical University of Athens, as the part of the INSPIRE project. INSPIRE project mainly concerns optimization of systems, energy management, and environmental impact in process engineering, which was a Marie Curie Research Training Network supported by the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme. Currently, she is involved in the project titled: "Economically efficient and socially accepted CCS/EOR processes�, which is funded from Norway Grants in the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme operated by the National Centre for Research and Development. In this project, she focuses on CO2 emission from the Refinery and Cement industry. Additionally, she is involved in the national project titled �Development of the expert system for assessing environmental, economic and social effectiveness of Polish coal mines�. She also teaches subjects such as Environmental impact and thermo-economic evaluation in the energy sector. Tomasz Simla PhD student, Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Poland. Tomasz Simla is a PhD student at the Institute of Thermal Technology (Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland). He defended his MSc thesis "Exploiting the cryogenic exergy of liquefied natural gas in production of electricity� in 2016. His PhD thesis focuses on the evaluation of interrelations between renewable energy sources, energy storage and fossil fuel-based energy system using the concept of Thermo-Ecological Cost. His research activities cover modelling of energy systems and exergy analysis. He was the main developer of an industrial project "Developing an application for calculation of energetic and ecological effectiveness of heat and electricity sources for individual consumers�. Additionally he is involved in teaching subjects such as Energy Management, Modelling of Energy Installations, Thermo-Economic Evaluation in the Energy Sector, Heat Transfer.