A Concise Review of Exergy-Based Economic Methods

摘要

In the analysis and design of energy systems, techniques are often used which combine scientific disciplines (mainly thermodynamics) with economic disciplines (mainly cost accounting) to achieve optimum designs. For energy conversion devices, cost accounting conventionally considers unit costs based on energy. Costs are better distributed among outputs if cost accounting is based on the thermodynamic quantity exergy, partly because exergy, but not energy, is often a consistent measure of economic value. In this article, we critically review relations between exergy and economics, and exergy-based economic methods (exergoeconomics, thermoeconomics, exergy-based pricing, EXCEM analysis, analysis based on the ratio of thermodynamic loss to capital cost). Most such methods aim to determine appropriate allocations of economic resources for optimal design and operation, and/or economic feasibility and profitability.