Exergy Analysis of Natural Gas ICE-Based CHP System

A challenge for CHP (Combined heating and power) system is the efficient integration of distributed generation (DG) equipment with thermally-activated (TA) technologies. Tsinghua University focuses on laboratory and demonstration research to study the critical issues of CHP systems, advance the technology and accelerate its application. The Research performed at the Building Energy Research Center (BERC) Laboratory focuses on assessing the operational performance and efficiency of the integration of current DG and TA technologies. The test system is composed of a 70-kW natural gas-fired internal combustion engine (ICE) with various heat recovery units, such as a flue gas-to-water heat recovery unit (FWRU), a jacket water heat recovery unit (JRU), liquid desiccant dehumidification systems (LDS), an exhaust-gas-driven double-effect absorption heat pump (EDAHP), and a condensation heat recovery unit (CRU)). In the winter, the exhaust gas from the ICE is used in the FWRU (operation mode I) or used to drive the EDAHP directly, and the exhaust gas from the EDAHP is used in the CRU (operation mode II). The water flows from the CRU can be directed to the evaporator side of the EDAHP as the lower-grade heat source. The water flows from the condensation side of the EDAHP, in conjunction with the jacket water flows from the JRU, is used for heating. In summer, the exhaust gas from the ICE is used to drive the EDAHP for cooling directly, and the waste heat of the jacket water is used to drive the liquid desiccant dehumidification systems, to realize the separate control of heat and humidity. In this paper, the exergy and energy analysis has been done on operation mode I and II according to the actual testing results, and it is show that the exergy efficiency of operation mode II is improved by 1.5% than operation mode I, and the energy efficiency of operation mode II is improved by 11% than operation mode I. The only way to improve the whole CHP is to maximize the use of the heat recovered by the ICE and to utilize the remaining heat of exhaust gas in other waste-heat driven equipments capable of using low grade waste heat like the CRU.