Investigation on aqua-ammonia based solar cooling cogeneration plant

Abstract

Purpose – The proposed solar thermal cooling cogeneration cycle is well suited for industrial as well as domestic needs and it eliminates need of electricity for refrigeration system. The purpose of this paper is to integrate power and cooling to minimize the energy usage. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed plant has double turbine with superheater and reheater to extract more energy, operating on single generator. The saturated refrigerant from the exit of the generator is used to run the primary turbine and the exit mass of refrigerant is split into 50:50 cooling to power ratio. Findings – It produces additional power of 24 kW at absorber concentration of 0.42 and turbine inlet concentration of 0.95, with separator temperature of 145°C and atmosphere temperature of 30°C. Research limitations/implications – The proposed cooling cogeneration cycle is possible to run on all the refrigerant working fluid mixture and it overcomes the problem of Goswami cycle which is not possible to run in hot climatic countries. Originality/value – The cycle can operate individually as refrigeration cycle, power cycle and both and it will run all climatic conditions.