Exergy, economic and environmental analysis of a solar-assisted cold supply machine for district energy systems

Meisam Sadi and Ahmad Arabkoohsar

Energy, 2020, vol. 206, issue C

Abstract: Supplying the energy demand for absorption chillers by the district heating network is a quite common process while challenging during summertime when there is not enough demand from the network. To provide the required heat of absorption chiller in summer and supply heat to district heating in winter, two targets of the system, the parabolic trough collectors are employed. To follow these targets, many components are integrated; including absorption chiller, district heating system and solar thermal field, each of which has its sub-components. In this paper, exergy analysis is used to evaluate the exergy efficiency and the exergy destruction of each component. This helps in finding the losses taking place in the system and decreasing the magnitude of irreversibilities. Moreover, an economic and environmental analysis is performed to evaluate and compare the energy cost and CO2 emission. The absorption chiller of Aarhus University hospital in Denmark is used as the case study. It can be seen that the system can totally solve the summertime supply problem of the chiller and can also support the district heating system. The results show that the highest exergy destruction occurs in the absorber and desorber with the percentages of 40.5% and 35.5%. The payback period of the system is found to be about 7.5 years based on the net present value approach. The system saves over 182,000 tonnes of equivalent CO2 being emitted to the environment, throughout its 20-year lifetime.

Keywords: Absorption chiller; Parabolic trough solar collectors; District heating; Energy; Exergy; Economic and environmental analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:206:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220313177

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118210

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