Exergy analysis of a combined power and cooling cycle

Abstract

Ammonia-water power cycles are important for efficient utilization of low temperature heat sources such as geothermal, solar, waste heat sources, etc. For some special conditions ammonia-water power cycle is an important and economical option. This paper presents an exergetic analysis of a combined power and cooling cycle that uses ammonia-water mixture as working fluid. Such cycles, use solar or geothermal energy or waste heat energy from a conventional power cycle. Ammonia-water power cycle can be used as independent cycles to provide power output and cooling. For a range (25-55 Bar) of boiler pressure the performance of the combined power and cooling cycle is investigated. The exergy of the boiler is very low compared to its energy. There is a boiling process and a heat transfer process at low temperature, both of which destruct the energy given to the boiler, so that the energy efficiency is low; however the exergy efficiency is higher than the energy efficiency. Increasing the turbine inlet pressure decreases the energy and exergy efficiencies.