Application of ammonia-water absorption cycle to transfer cooling and heating at ambient temperature

Utilizing wasted heat is an important issue to reduce primary fuel consumption. Because wasted heat sources are not always located near heat demand, it is required to transport thermal energy efficiently. The authors proposed an application of absorption cycle to heat transportation. In contrast with conventional chilled water transportation, the proposed absorption system has the generator-condenser pair at the heat source side while the evaporator-absorber pair at the demand side, and transfers absorption solutions between them. The solution transportation can transfer thermal energy which is converted into the difference of solution concentration. In this study, the proposed system named STA is expanded to supply heating from the absorber as well, which enhances the COP and reduces primary fuel consumption. STA combined with refuse incineration power generation was investigated to utilize steam from the incineration to provide power, cooling and heating simultaneously. The primary fuel substitution is estimated to be 1.7 times as much as that of power generation only system.