Irreversible Thermodynamics

The course extends classical thermodynamics beyond equilibrium and introduces the concept of entropy production. The students will learn what the entropy production is, where it comes from and how it can be used to:

• Formulate consistent transport laws for heat, mass and charge transfer that include coupling. These transport laws will be used to explain thermal diffusion (transport in reservoirs), Peltier and Seebeck effects (energy in space and degradation of batteries), reverse electrodialysis (energy from mixing salt-water and fresh-water), membrane transport, fuel cells and other important examples where renewable energy technologies are in focus.
• Identify, characterize, and minimize lost work and exergy destruction in processes and process equipment. Concepts such as exergy and lost work will be explained, and the students will learn to use them in practice to analyze and improve the energy efficiency of processes and process equipment. Scientifically founded guidelines for energy efficient operation and design will be presented and explained.

The course provides a powerful toolbox, both for students interested in transport phenomena, and for students who want to learn how to improve energy efficiency; a necessary task to reach many of UN's sustainability goals.

After finishing the course, the student is expected to:

• Be able to derive the entropy production for a simple system with transport of heat, mass and charge.
• Define and understand common measures for energy efficiency.
• Be able to propose equations for transport that agree with the second law of thermodynamics.
• Understand when such equations are relevant in applications.
• Know what exergy destruction and lost work is, and how to use these concepts to improve the energy efficiency of processes.
• Know how to use guidelines for energy efficient design and operation.

Lectures and compulsory exercises in English. A theoretical or experimental project. The student projects will be adapted to the background of the student. Grading is based on the project report. The students will have a short presentation of their project before delivering the report.

Expected work load in the course is 200-225 hours.