Feasibility of Processes and Efficient Energy Utilization

The feasibility of processes and the efficient energy utilization in carrying them out represent the original objectives of thermodynamics and the reason for its name. Actually, the second objective has been traditionally of interest to power engineers, mostly mechanical, while chemical engineers paid only lip service to it, when energy cost was very low. 

The drastic increase in energy cost following the Oil Embargo of 1973, however, and its impact on the product cost of the chemical and petroleum industries, made the subject of efficient energy utilization a major concern of chemical engineers as well. 

A combination of the first and second laws will be used to establish the criteria for  

the degree of efficient energy utilization in, a process under consideration. 

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