Sustainability Assessment of Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power Systems under Carbon Emission Regulations

Xiaolin Chu, Dong Yang and Jia Li
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Xiaolin Chu: Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China
Dong Yang: Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China
Jia Li: Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: The combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system, which is a sustainable distributed energy system, has attracted increasing attention due to the associated economic, environmental, and energy benefits. Currently, the enforcement of carbon emission regulations has become an increasingly concerning issue globally. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization model is established to evaluate the CCHP system under two different carbon emission regulation policies in terms of economic benefit, environmental sustainability, and energy advantage. A nonlinear programming optimization model is formulated and solved by using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results from the case studies demonstrate that when considering carbon tax regulation, the cost savings of the optimal CCHP system strategy were on average 10.0%, 9.1%, 17.0%, 22.1%, and 20.9% for the office, supermarket, hotel, school, and hospital in China, respectively, compared with the conventional energy supply system. On the other hand, when considering carbon trading regulation, the optimal CCHP system strategy can lead to a 10.0%, 8.9%, 16.8%, 21.6%, and 20.5% cost-saving for the five different building categories, respectively. Furthermore, the optimal CCHP system strategy for the five buildings, i.e., an average of 39.6% carbon dioxide emission (CDE) reduction and 26.5% primary energy consumption (PEC) saving, can be achieved under carbon emission regulations.

Keywords: combined cooling; heating and power system; sustainability; carbon tax regulation; cost-saving ratio; carbon trading regulation; carbon dioxide emission reduction; primary energy saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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