Activation of absorption chillers by the transit heat flow of the energy cycle in cogeneration solar systems

Abstract

The problem of peak electricity consumption for air conditioning needs in countries with a hot climate is analyzed. It is determined that one of the ways to solve it is to create and use solar cogeneration coolers. The generation of electricity and cold in comparable proportions by such installations will reduce the load on generating electric capacities and create a reserve for connecting electric coolers. The combined use of power (turbine) cycles and industrial absorption chillers (one- and two-stage) has been explored. Evaluation of consumer qualities of a wide range of designs of cogeneration coolers is carried out using the developed thermal schemes based on Rankine cycles. The idea of the proposed method for constructing a cogeneration cooler is to use the turbine cycle waste heat to activate absorption chillers that operate in the normal mode. The study results showed that steam-to-water cogeneration coolers can be effectively used with a two-stage absorption chiller. It is shown that in the inverse mode such a cooler is able to provide efficient air heating in winter (up to +35 °C). It has been determined that the use of a butane cycle in the supercritical steam parameters region allows, with a little decrease of cogeneration cooler COP during in hot hours, to increase the cooling capacity by ∼2 times by reducing the intensity of regenerative heat flow transfer in the power unit. It has been established that the intensification of regenerative heat transfer in the power unit significantly affects on the system cooling capacity.