Potential emissions reductions from the use of dual-combined heat and power systems in different climate conditions

Abstract

In this paper, the potential carbon dioxide emissions (CDE) reduction from the use of a combined heat and power system with two power generation units (D-CHP) is examined for a restaurant building in nine different climate conditions. The performance of the D-CHP system is evaluated on the basis of CDE and operational cost savings. In addition, the results from the D-CHP optimised scheme are compared with the optimised results of a base-loaded CHP (BL-CHP) system and a CHP system operated following the electric load (CHP-FEL). Results show that the D-CHP system produces greater savings over BL-CHP and CHP-FEL for most of the locations examined, whether optimised based on CDE or based on cost. Moreover, the effect of the emissions and cost spark spreads for each location on the D-CHP system performance is analysed. Results indicate that higher spark spreads are shown to yield greater savings for all CHP configurations.