Exergoeconomics of a Solar-Assisted Double-Effect Absorption Cogeneration System Integrated with a Cold Thermal Energy Storage System

The cogeneration system described here is constructed based on a solar-assisted double-effect absorption cogeneration cycle with an adjustable cooling-to-power ratio. To benefit from the ability to adjust the cooling-to-power ratio, this system is integrated with a cold thermal energy storage (TES) system. The procedure described here is applied to a combined cooling and power system with a TES capability for a large medical center in Jeddah, KSA. Through an exergoeconomic analysis of the integrated system on a typical summer day in Jeddah, we found that the system could fulfill the cooling and power demands of the medical center with an exergetic efficiency of 53.97%. From an economics perspective, the integrated system was found to deliver cooling and power with average unit costs of 222.89$/GJ and 17.06$/GJ, respectively. These costs are lower than the unit costs of the respective cooling and power costs delivered to the medical center if they were obtained from an electrically-driven vapor compression system (VCS) and the electric grid, respectively. For the case study investigated, it was found that using the integrated system is a desirable approach. It was also found that although cogeneration systems constructed based on the double-effect combined cooling and power (DECCP) cycle have higher exergy destruction and capital investment rates, they have a lower unit cost for the produced exergy in comparison with those of cogeneration systems constructed based on a single-effect combined cooling and power (SECCP) cycle.