Influence of climatic conditions and control logic on NOx and CO emissions of a micro-cogeneration unit serving an Italian residential building

In this paper the nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emissions of a residential building-integrated micro-cogeneration system were evaluated; a 6.0 kWel natural gas fuelled internal combustion engine-based micro-cogeneration unit was coupled with a multi-family house compliant with the transmittance values suggested by the Italian Law. The analyses were carried out by using the whole building simulation software TRNSYS upon varying the city where the building is located (four Italian cities representative of different climatic regions were considered) as well as the control logic of cogeneration device (electric and thermal load-following strategies). The simulated performance of the proposed system was compared with those of a conventional system composed of a natural gas-fired boiler (for thermal energy production) and a power plant mix connected to the central electric grid (for electricity production) in order to assess the suitability of the cogeneration-based system in reducing the local emissions.