Thermodynamic analysis and performance assessment of an integrated heat pump system for district heating applications

• A new integrated heat pump system is developed for district heating applications.
• An analysis and assessment study is undertaken through exergy analysis methodology.
• A comparative efficiency evaluation is performed for practical applications.
• A parametric study is conducted to investigate how varying operating conditions and state properties affect energy and exergy efficiencies.

A Rankine cycle-driven heat pump system is modeled for district heating applications with superheated steam and hot water as products. Energy and exergy analyses are performed, followed by parametric studies to determine the effects of varying operating conditions and environmental parameters on the system performance. The district heating section is observed to be the most inefficient part of system, exhibiting a relative irreversibility of almost 65%, followed by the steam evaporator and the condenser, with relative irreversibilities of about 18% and 9%, respectively. The ambient temperature is observed to have a significant influence on the overall system exergy destruction. As the ambient temperature decreases, the system exergy efficiency increases. The electricity generated can increase the system exergy efficiency at the expense of a high refrigerant mass flow rate, mainly due to the fact that the available heat source is low quality waste heat. For instance, by adding 2 MW of excess electricity on top of the targeted 6 MW of product heat, the refrigerant mass flow rate increases from 12 kg/s (only heat) to 78 kg/s (heat and electricity), while the production of 8 MW of product heat (same total output, but in form of heat) requires a refrigerant mass flow rate of only 16 kg/s.