Flexible Heat-to-Power Ratio Co-Generation System With Ammonia-Water Mixture Cycles at Bottoming

This paper presents the experimental study of a unique cogeneration system which the authors call the “Advanced Co-Generation System (ACGS)”. It mainly consists of three turbine systems and an ammonia absorption refrigerator (AAR). The specialty of the ACGS is the bottoming stage employing an ammonia-water mixture (AWM) as the working fluid. First, the overall system configuration and some experimental results at the steady state are shown. The experimental investigation shows that the AWM bottoming cycles contribute to a higher efficiency of the system. An increase of 5–10% in electric power compared to a conventional co-generation system (CGS) is confirmed. Next, a hybrid configuration of the AWM turbine (AWMT) cycle and the AAR is investigated. A simulation model is constructed. The results of the simulation show that the hybrid configuration performs at about 14% higher efficiency.