Rivero, R.; Garfias, M.

Standard chemical exergy of elements update

Energy (ISSN 0360-5442) Vol.31, 2006 pp. 3310-3326

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Energy 31 (2006) 33103326 www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Standard chemical exergy of elements updated

R. Rivero, M. Garas
leo, Grupo de Exergia, Eje Central La zaro Ca rdenas 152, 07730, Me xico, D.F., Me xico Instituto Mexicano del Petro

Abstract The chemical exergy of a substance is the maximum work that can be obtained from it by taking it to chemical equilibrium with the reference environment at constant temperature and pressure. This exergy is normally taken or calculated from tabulated values obtained for standard conditions, i.e. an ambient temperature of 298.15 K, an atmospheric pressure of 1 atm, and a model of reference species which considers the concentration of the most common components of the atmosphere, the oceans and the Earths crust. The model proposed by Szargut for the calculation of the standard chemical exergy of elements and organic and inorganic substances has been revised. As a result of this revision, updated values of standard chemical exergy of elements are presented and compared with the ones estimated by Szargut. Because of some anomalous behaviour in the chemical exergy when a different salinity of seawater is assumed, some different reference species than those used in the latest version of the Szargut model were proposed for the following elements: silver, gold, barium, calcium, cadmium, copper, mercury, magnesium, nickel, lead, strontium and zinc. A complete set of updated values of chemical exergies of elements for the standard conditions (298.15 K and 1 atm) is tabulated. r 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Standard chemical exergy; Elements; Reference species; Environment.

1. Introduction The exergy of a system is a measure of the quality of the energy which it contains and of its distance from the environment since it is dened as the minimum work necessary to produce a substance in a specic state from the species present in the environment by means of reversible processes in which heat and mass are interchanged only with the surroundings. The exergy of a substance can be separated into physical and chemical. Physical exergy is the work that can be obtained by taking the system to the temperature and pressure conditions of the environment at constant composition. Otherwise, chemical exergy (Exq) is the work that can be obtained by taking a substance to chemical equilibrium with the environment at constant temperature and pressure. The chemical exergy has two contributions: reactional exergy, resulting from the chemical reactions necessary to produce species existing as stable components in the environment, from the initial composition of the substance; and

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E-mail address: rrivero@imp.mx (R. Rivero). 0360-5442/$ - see front matter r 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2006.03.020