Thermodynamic Modeling of an Ammonia-Water Absorption System Associated with a Microturbine

Abstract

Thermodynamic modeling and Second Law analysis of a small-scale cogeneration system consisting of a 5 refrigerant ton absorption chiller connected by a thermosyphon heat exchanger to a 28 kWe natural gas microturbine are presented. The proposed configuration changes the heat source of the absorption chiller, replacing the original natural gas burning system. A computational algorithm was programmed to analyze the global efficiency of the combined cooling and power plant and the coefficient of performance of the absorption chiller. The results show the consistency of the proposed model and a good performance of the cogeneration system. The thermal efficiency of the combined cooling and power plant is approximately 41%, which represents a 67% increase relative to a single natural-gas microturbine.