Thermodynamic analysis of a combined reheat regenerative thermal power plant and water–LiBr vapor absorption refrigeration system

• Thermodynamic analysis of a combined power-absorption cooling system is provided.
• Effect of important operating parameters on combined cycle performance is studied.
• Compares performance of combined cycle with power cycle without absorption system.
• Gives quantitative comparison of power cycle performance with and without water heater.
• Analysis on vapor power and water–LiBr absorption refrigeration system is not available.

Detail thermodynamic analysis of a combined reheat regenerative steam turbine (ST) based power cycle and water–LiBr vapor absorption refrigeration system (VARS) is presented in this study. The power cycle uses one open and one closed water heater (CWH) for purpose of feed water heating. A parametric analysis is performed to investigate the effects of boiler pressure, fuel flow rate, VARS evaporator cooling load and operating temperatures on performance of the topping power cycle and bottoming VARS. Further a performance comparison of the combined power and cooling plant is made with the power plant (without VARS) to quantify the performance variation due to VARS integration. Comparative performance analysis is also provided for the power plant (without VARS) with and without the CWH in the plant. The analysis indicates that the fuel flow rate and boiler pressure affects only the power cycle performance while the evaporator cooling load and VARS components’ operating temperature has its combined effect both on the power and the cooling system, the evaporator cooling load is the most crucial among them. A sensitive analysis shows that the power and efficiency of the topping cycle change very little with VARS operating temperatures. VARS coefficient of performance is more sensitive to the change in condenser and absorber temperature compared to change in generator and evaporator temperature.