Investigation on year-round dispatch of multiple chillers in trigeneration system for high-rise building application

Abstract

Trigeneration system is an energy-efficient solution to provide building cooling, heating and electricity. Owing to the waste heat recovery from the prime mover of trigeneration, it is natural to involve the thermally activated chiller. If the cooling demand is high, the electrically driven compression chiller would be supplemented. Since both absorption and compression chillers are adopted, multiple chiller staging would cover not only the quantity but also the type of chiller. In this study, a trigeneration system using two sets of diesel-engine prime movers was designed for a high-rise reference office building in a subtropical city. Two corresponding absorption chillers and one compression chiller were involved to share the peak cooling load. Year-round dynamic simulation was conducted to evaluate the interaction of these system components. It was found that the dispatch patterns of the two types of chillers were quite different in the hot and cold seasons.