Performance assessment of a new organic Rankine cycle based multi-generation system integrated with a triple effect absorption system

The objective of this paper is to introduce a new thermodynamic system where hot water, heating, cooling, dry air (conditioned air) and electricity are generated from a single source of clean energy. The proposed multi-generation system consists of a solar-driven organic Rankine cycle integrated with a series type of triple effect absorption chiller that employs LiBr-H2O as working fluid. In addition, a new molten salt, NaCl-MgCl2, which is utilized in the solar block is investigated. The present work has two main parts; in the first part, an energetic and exergetic analysis of the system is carried out. In the second part, an environmental assessment of the system is conducted. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) is used to determine the above mentioned productions. Finally, the effects of various operating conditions and configurations on the aforementioned outputs are discussed. The results show that the system has the exergetic utilization factor of 0.39 based on generating electricity of 428 kW. Furthermore, the energetic COP of absorption chiller is determined to be 1.34. In the proposed system, the energetic and exergetic efficiencies of organic Rankine cycle are 14.4 and 26%, respectively. In addition, environmental analysis shows the system can be more beneficial for the environment with a low ambient temperature.