A Sustentabilidade sob a perspectiva da termodinâmica

Abstract

Sustainability is an increasingly relevant concept in contemporary times, aiming to promote balanced economic, social, and environmental development. In the context of industrial chemical processes, sustainability plays a crucial role, given that these processes often have significant impacts on the environment, natural resource consumption, and waste generation. Within this context, Thermodynamics offers a set of tools that allow us to predict the amount of recoverable energy and, consequently, the impact of proposed changes to the energy matrix of industrial processes and their reflection on the sustainability of these processes. Four methods were presented: CExC (Cumulative Exergy Consumption), TEC (Thermoecological Cost), EEC (Extended Exergy Consumption), and ExF (Exergy Footprint). Therefore, this thesis provides an overview of the most current applications of exergy analysis in industrial processes and offers pathways for calculating process sustainability through the latest research in this field. Additionally, another objective was to describe the available methodologies for calculating process sustainability using thermodynamic tools, analyzing their similarities and differences. Two processes were analyzed and discussed, the exergy analysis of the combustion on a boiler and the Thermo Ecological Cost (TEC) of the production of pig iron in a blast furnace. It was recognized that sustainability itself cannot be quantified or measured through thermodynamic methods, as there is no assignable value to it. Within this context, the proposed methodologies for evaluating sustainability gain prominence, grounded in exergy analysis, linked to environmental and economic indicators. Thus, an innovative approach emerges with significant potential to be adopted in assessing industrial processes from an energy perspective.