6. Conclusions

This chapter discusses the problems of optimization of thermodynamics and methods of analysis of systems and describes the types of thermodynamic balances, the relationship between the performance of the process, and the production of entropy. Also, it is shown that in the absence of irreversibility, the thermal efficiency is equal to the Carnot efficiency.

The conditions are found under which the thermodynamic processes at a given average intensity have minimal dissipation, expressions for determining the minimum dissipation and entropy with the Newtonian heat transfer law are obtained, and expressions for the cases of vector flux, one-sided isothermal, and two-sided equimolar mass transfer are given.

The synthesis algorithm makes it possible to build heat exchange systems with minimal irreversibility, in which restrictions on water equivalents, temperatures, and phase states of the flows are fulfilled, which imply combining the fluxes into two equivalent ones. The nature of the set of realizable modes of heat engines and pumps is described. It is shown that the efficiency corresponding to the maximum power mode does not depend on heat transfer coefficients, but is only a function of the Carnot efficiency.

Separation processes are considered, and estimates of the thermal efficiency of the separation process and the shape of the realizable area boundary are obtained

for them. It is shown that the efficiency in the mode of maximum performance depends only on the reversible efficiency. The rule of temperature multipliers is described, which allows to determine the separation order in multistage systems.
