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Module 5 · Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics

The first and second laws applied to process equipment, enthalpy and energy balances around real equipment, phase equilibrium and P-T-x behavior, and how process engineers estimate thermodynamic properties in practice.

An energy balance is only bookkeeping — thermodynamics is what makes that bookkeeping solvable and meaningful. This module builds the steady-flow first-law energy balance in terms of enthalpy, works through why real equipment always performs worse than the reversible ideal case, and introduces the P-T-x phase-equilibrium diagrams that govern how mixtures split between vapor and liquid.

By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a real compressor discharges gas hotter than an ideal isentropic calculation predicts, and why that same irreversibility reasoning shows up again once Module 8's distillation column and Module 9's heat exchangers put this module's energy balance and phase-equilibrium tools to direct use.

Free related reading in this studio
→ Material & Energy Balances: The Foundation of Process Engineering→ Concept Explainer: Ideal vs. Real Gases→ Concept Explainer: Isothermal vs. Adiabatic Processes→ Concept Explainer: Partial Pressure vs. Fugacity

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