Thermodynamic analysis on the insulation of liquefied gas containers

Beginning from Prigogine's and Haken's statements on the possibility of keeping an "order" (i.e. an exergy level) by dissipative phenomena, in previous papers, for several systems, the exergy level and the entropy production rate necessary for reaching and supporting such a level at a steady state were examined. In this paper, the above concepts are utilized to obtain a general rule on the liquefied gas containers insulation in the temperature field between sulphur dioxide boiling and helium boiling (at atmospheric pressure). To this purpose, both the entropy production in the insulation and that necessary to "return back" to the environment temperature, and the thermal energy flowing through the insulation, by a suitable heat pump cycle, are examined.