THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Department of Chemical Engineering

ChE220 problem set 12 (due Friday, April 23, 2010)
c
!2010 by S. T. Milner, all rights reserved

April 19, 2010

1 Two-stage turbines

One way in which commercial power plants increase operating efficiency is to use two turbines in
series. The output stream of the first turbine is reheated before it is fed into the input of the second
turbine.

Consider a power plant with a boiler operating at 500C, 100 bar. Assume the turbines are perfectly
efficient. The design requires that the output of each turbine falls on the coexistence curve, and
that the output of the first turbine be heated (with a second boiler unit) at constant pressure, back
to 500C.

a) Sketch the cycle on the PH chart for water (“R718”, attached); find the output pressure of the
first and second turbines.

b) Compute the heat flows QH for each boiler, QL for the condenser, and the work W done by
each turbine. Present your results in a table (units kJ/kg).
! !
c) Find the plant efficiency − W/ QH ; compare to the Carnot efficiency.

2 Automotive AC

Current automotive air conditioners use R134a as a working fluid. Assume an evaporator temper-
ature of 0C (in practice, this would be just above freezing, to prevent ice buildup) and a condenser
temperature of 40C (needs to be able to exhaust heat into the engine bay). In this problem, neglect
the finite compressor efficiency.

1
 180 CHAPTER 7. THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF PROCESSES

QC

D C

condenser
throttling
valve
W
compressor

evaporator
A B

QE

Figure 7.9: Vapor compression refrigeration cycle.

a) Carry out a simple thermodynamic analysis of this process: find the operating pressures in the
evaporator and condenser, sketch the cycle on a PH diagram, find the heat flows QH and QL and
work done W .rejects
condenser Present
theyour results
amount |Q Cin| =
a table
|Q E | (units
+ |W | kJ/kg). Compute
at temperature the
Tcond COP, and of
, application compare
the to
the second
Carnotlaw
COP.to the cycle gives

An improved |Qair
E | conditioner
|Q E | + |Wdesign
| uses an internal
|Q Eheat
| exchanger
|Q E | + |W(see
| figure below), with the
− ≥ 0, or − = Sgen (7.21)
heat flowing Tfrom the condenser
ev 7.7. T cond output to the evaporator
T ev output,
T cond to further cool the condenser
REFRIGERATION 185
output before throttling. The design calls for the condenser output to be cooled to 0C.
where Sgen is a positive quantity that represents entropy generation due to irreversibilities.
For e reversible (Carnot) process (cop)|W QC
|, the above equation is solved for cop to give

Tev Sgen Tev

cop = + (7.22)
D* − Tev
Tcondcondenser |W | C
180 CHAPTER 7. THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF PROCESSES
Wc
Since the second term on the rhs is never negative, we mustcompressor
have
B*
QC

D Tev heat
exchanger C
D ≤
cop = copCarnot (7.23)
Tcond − Tev
condenser
throttling
The maximum coefficient of performance is obtained whenW the the cycle is a reversible
Wtvalve
turbine
compressor

Carnot cycle operating between Tev and Tevaporator

cond . Notice that the coefficient of performance
evaporator
can be larger than 1 but it cannot exceed
A
A that of the Carnot
B
B cycle.
QE
QE
Example 7.14 Refrigeration cycle
It is needed to provide 10 ton of7.10:
Figure refrigeration
Figure Refrigerator
7.9: at 20
with
Vapor compression ◦refrigeration
F using
intermediate tetrafluoroethane
heat exchanger.
cycle. (HFC 134a) as re-
◦
b) Sketch theCooling
frigerant. new process
water on the PH diagram.
is available at 75 F. You may assume that the liquid at the exit of the
condenser is saturated, Table
at 7.4: Summary of results for exampleis T7.15.
condenserthe vapor
rejects the amountthe
|Q exit ofE |the
C | = |Q + |W evaporator
| at temperature saturated, and
cond , application that the compressor
of the
operates second
reversibly. law to the cycle gives
c) Find the heat flow Q exchanged between∗ the two streams.
X A B B C D ∗ D
P|Q E | − |Q E | + |W |33.11
33.11 ≥ 0, 33.11
or
|Q E |
101.37 |Q E | + |W 101.37
− 101.37
|
= Sgen psi (7.21)
Additional data: A tonT ofTev refrigeration
20Tcond 20is equal 60 to 12,000
Tev
140 Btu/hr.
80Tcond 80 ◦F
d) Find the new values of
H Q ,36.752
where Sgen is H
QL , quantity
a positive
and Wthat, and
105.907 115 the125 new COP 47.08 (results
37.978 in a table
Btu/lb
represents entropy generation due to irreversibilities.
as before). Compare
again to the Carnot For COP.
S 0.07892 0.22325 0.24
sat. v s/h v.
0.24 0.09579 0.07892 Btu/lb R
e reversible (Carnot) process (cop)|W |, the above equation is solved for cop to give
phase l = 0.776 s/h v. l = 0.88 sat. liq. (–)
Tev Sgen Tev
cop = + (7.22)
Tcond − Tev |W |
The states
Since theof streams
second D and
term B have
on the thenever
rhs is samenegative,2 we must
specifications chaveas before.
the!2010
same by Accordingly,
S. T. Milner,
stream all rights reserved
A has also the same properties as in example 7.15, since it is produced by the isentropic expansion
of D. Stream B ∗ is known since its temperature
Tev is given and its pressure is known to be 101.37 psi.
cop ≤ ∗ = copCarnot (7.23)
The only unknown streams are C and DT .cond
Stream
− TevC is obtained from the isentropic compression of
known stream B ∗ . By interpolation in the tables, we obtain
The maximum coefficient of performance is obtained when the the cycle is a reversible
3 CO2 for car AC

In Europe, automotive air conditioners using CO2 as a working fluid are likely to replace current
equipment based on R134a within the next decade.

Carry out a simple thermodynamic analysis of this process as for R134a (without the internal heat
exchanger). (PH chart is labeled “R744”.)

a) How do the evaporator and condenser operating pressures compare to the R134a values?

b) What is the state of the working fluid in the condenser? (Should this device be called by some
other name? Comment briefly.)

c) How does the efficiency compare to R134a?

3 c
!2010 by S. T. Milner, all rights reserved