Exergy-economic criteria for evaluating heat exchanger performance

Based on the exergy-economic analysis of heat exchanger heat transfer and flow process, two new exergy- economic criteria which are defined as the total costs per unit heat transfer rate n, for heat transfer exchanger and the net profit per unit heat recovery rate νr for heat recovery exchanger respectively are put forward. Furthermore, the application of criteria is illustrated by the evaluation of down-flow, counter-flow and cross-flow heat exchangers performance. The methods employed and results presented in this paper can serve as a guide for the performance evaluation of heat exchangers.