Effects of design parameters on entropy generation rate of sulphuric acid decomposition process

ABSTRACT

Based on the finite-time thermodynamics, the sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) decomposition process (SADP) is investigated in this paper. The influences of the diameter and length of the reactor and the pressure and temperature of the reactant at the inlet on the production rate of SO₂, entropy generation rate (EGR) and specific EGR (the EGR per unit production rate) are analysed. The values of some parameters to lower the specific EGR are obtained. It shows that there are optimal diameter and length of the reactor and the pressure of the reactant at the inlet to minimise the specific EGR. The optimal diameters of the reactor and optimal pressures of the reactant at the inlet for the minimum specific EGR and for the minimum EGR are the same while the optimal lengths of the reactor for the two optimisation objectives are different.

KEYWORDS:

• Sulphuric acid decomposition process
• production rate
• entropy generation rate
• specific entropy generation rate
• finite-time thermodynamics

Acknowledgements

This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of P. R. China (Project Nos. 51606218 and 51576207), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Project No. 2018CFB708), Self-Topic Project of Naval University of Engineering (Project No. 20161504) and Innovation Foundation Project of PhD candidate of Naval University of Engineering (XYBJ1601).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of P. R. China (Project Nos. 51606218 and 51576207), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Project No. 2018CFB708), Self-Topic Project of Naval University of Engineering (Project No. 20161504) and Innovation Foundation Project of PhD candidate of Naval University of Engineering (XYBJ1601).