Approach for the practical application of Exergy Analysis within branch-oriented enterprise networks, towards the realization of an Exergy Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA)

Usually efficiency is defined in energetic terms without taking into account the quality of the energy. Another way to analyse and optimise processes and systems is in terms of exergy. The concept of exergy incorporates both qualitative and quantitative properties of energy. Exergy analysis makes the exact determination of the energetic and resource saving potential of industrial processes or systems possible. This paper presents a framework for the practical application of the exergy concept into the reality of industrial enterprises. The starting point is the project “ReMo Green. Energy Efficiency for SMEs in Berlin”. The new approach of this project is a branch-specific proceeding and an application of the reference modelling for the development of an “Energy Efficiency Reference Modell” and a “Reference Standard Software for Energy Efficiency”. The enterprise network structure and the compiled energetic data from “ReMo” can be used as a basis for an exergy project. The new exergy approach expands the analysis beyond the limits of the company in order to consider the whole life cycle of the products and includes not only energetic resources but also those that are material. The cooperation within enterprise networks reduces the required time and effort for the exergy data calculation and enables the realisation of an Exergy-Benchmarking as well. In this framework, high data quality is achieved because enterprises of the same branch share basically the same production processes and products. Therefore the calculated exergy data can be used as a data source of a Life Cycle Inventory Data Base.