Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434

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Energy and Buildings

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Integration of trigeneration in an indirect cascade refrigeration system in

supermarkets
M.A. Marimón a , J. Arias b , P. Lundqvist b , J.C. Bruno a,∗ , A. Coronas a
a
Rovira i Virgili University, Group of Applied Thermal Engineering-CREVER, Av. Paisos Catalans, 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain
b
Royal Institute of Technology/KTH, Div. of Applied Thermodynamics and Refrigeration (ETT), Department of Energy Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This article presents an energy and economic analysis of a trigeneration configuration for supermarket
Received 16 December 2010 applications. The energy system in a supermarket is relatively complex, because it includes lighting,
Accepted 5 February 2011 air conditioning, cabinets, refrigeration system, etc. A trigeneration system could be used to simultane-
ously satisfy heating, refrigeration and electricity demands in supermarkets. More specifically, this article
Keywords: studies the integration of a trigeneration system and an indirect refrigeration cascade compression sys-
Trigeneration
tem in a supermarket in Barcelona. The trigeneration system consists of a cogeneration engine and an
Absorption chiller
ammonia/water absorption chiller unit. The results of simulating energy usage, life cycle costs and CO2
Compression chiller
Energy saving
emissions have been compared with a conventional indirect refrigeration cascade compression system
Supermarkets for the supermarket studied. Several trigeneration configurations have been studied. They all show a
payback time of less than 6 years but the profitability of the investment depends strongly on the ratio
between the prices of natural gas and electricity. This study shows that this novel trigeneration system
is economically feasible and environmentally more viable than conventional supermarket systems.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The efficient supply of energy is fundamental if the productivity
of commercial activities is to be increased and people’s standard
of living improved; however, the use of traditional energy tech-
nologies contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases and the
depletion of non renewable energy sources. Developed countries
are struggling to reduce the amount of energy they use and invest-
ment in more energy-efficient technologies is becoming the main
pathway to reduce the impact on the environment. The potential to
develop energy efficient technologies is significant and most pro-
cesses and technologies can become substantially more efficient,
greener and cleaner than they are today.
Supermarkets are intensive users of energy [1] and in developed
countries they consume about 3% of the electric energy avail-
able [2]. Electricity consumption in large supermarkets in the US
and France is estimated to be 4% of the national total [3]. In the
United States, typical supermarkets with a sales area of approxi-
mately 3700–5600 m2 consume about 2–3 million kWh per year
[4]. A breakdown of supermarket energy usage shows that typ-
Abbreviations: ARS, absorption refrigeration system; ICE, internal combustion
engine; HVAC, heating, ventilatition, and air conditioning; LCC, life cycle cost.
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: juancarlos.bruno@urv.cat (J.C. Bruno).
ically 47% is used for the refrigeration system, 27% for lighting,
13% for fans and climate control, 3% for the kitchen, 5% for out-
door uses and 5% for other uses [5]. Electricity is used for lighting,
electrical equipment, fans and for so-called plug-in cabinets in the
sales area. Energy is also often used to cover demands for heating
and hot water. Because of the amount of electricity used, reducing
consumption has become a strategic issue for supermarket own-
ers from both the economic and environmental perspectives. A
variety of innovative technology solutions have been adopted to
improve the energy efficiency of supermarkets, among which are
the integration of HVAC and refrigeration units [6] and this same
integration using multiple subcoolers [7].
Trigeneration systems have recently been studied as a means
of decreasing energy use [8,9]. Various options and trigeneration
technologies have been analysed from the technical, economic and
environmental perspective in an attempt to identify the advantages
and disadvantages of real cases [10–12].
Depending on the user’s refrigeration demands, either direct or
indirect activation can be used between the cogeneration and the
absorption chiller in food applications with good results [13,14].
Direct activation consists of the direct use of exhaust gases to
drive the absorption chiller. Indirect activation, on the other
hand, uses the exhaust gases to produce hot water or steam in
a heat exchanger that is subsequently used as a heating medium
for the chiller. The energy efficiency of conventional refrigera-
tion systems has been compared to that of various trigeneration

0378-7788/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.02.003
1428 M.A. Marimón et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434

Fig. 1. Conventional energy supply system in a supermarket.

applications that use ammonia–water and lithium bromide–water

absorption chillers showing an overall seasonal efficiency of
64.6% [15].
The aim of the present article is to study the integration of a Fig. 2. Detailed view of the conventional indirect cascade refrigeration system.
trigeneration system with an indirect cascade refrigeration system
and compare it with a conventional indirect cascade refrigeration
system in a supermarket in Barcelona (Spain). In this novel con- 2.2. Integration of a trigeneration system with an indirect
figuration, an absorption chiller is used to cover a considerable cascade refrigeration system
fraction of the total refrigeration demand of the low and medium
temperature cabinets in the supermarket. In this study the software Fig. 3 shows the energy supply system configuration that inte-
CyberMart has been used to calculate the total energy demand of grates a trigeneration system with an indirect cascade refrigeration
the supermarket. It calculates the energy usage in a supermarket system. The trigeneration system consists of a natural gas cogener-
and can simulate a vast number of different system solutions for ation unit and an absorption chiller, which is driven by the exhaust
the refrigeration system [16]. gases from the cogeneration unit using a gas/water heat recovery
This study selects and sizes the cogeneration system and absorp- heat exchanger (not included in the diagram in Fig. 3). Any excess
tion chiller based on the supermarket energy demand, determines of heat can be used to provide the supermarket with heating during
their environmental impact and performs a preliminary econom- cold weather.
ical analysis of this trigeneration system as a function of specific This configuration uses an absorption chiller to cool the medium
fuel prices. temperature cabinet and the condenser of the low temperature
cabinet. The sum of the medium temperature cabinet capacity
and the heat released in the condenser of the low temperature
chiller is the refrigeration demand for the absorption chiller. Fig. 4
2. Energy supply system configurations shows a detailed diagram of the refrigeration system proposed, the
absorption refrigeration unit and the vapour compression chiller.
2.1. Conventional system configuration The absorption chiller units provide a supply temperature of about
−8 ◦ C and a return temperature of about −4 ◦ C.
Fig. 1 shows the energy supply system of a supermarket that The trigeneration system and an auxiliary compression chiller
uses a conventional refrigeration system. Electricity is consumed are used to cover the total refrigeration demand. The electricity
by the lighting, electrical equipment and the compression chillers produced by the cogeneration unit can be used by the supermarket
for the food cabinets and the supermarket cooling. Natural gas is
used to drive the boiler for heating and other uses. The chiller for
air conditioning produces chilled water at 7 ◦ C.
Fig. 2 shows a detailed view of the modern refrigeration sys-
tem for supermarkets: the so-called conventional indirect cascade
refrigeration system. This system avoids a large pressure ratio in
the low temperature system. The indirect cascade system operates
with two different temperature levels and secondary loops. The
secondary refrigerant in the medium temperature system cools the
medium temperature cabinet and the condenser of the chiller for
the low temperature cabinet. The temperature of the secondary
refrigerant in the medium temperature unit has a supply tem-
perature of −8 ◦ C and a return temperature of −4 ◦ C. The supply
temperature of the secondary refrigerant in the low temperature
system is −35 ◦ C and the return temperature is −30 ◦ C. The con-
densing temperature of the low temperature system is about 0 ◦ C,
which increases the coefficient of performance of the refrigeration
cycle and decreases the energy consumption of the low tempera-
ture system. Fig. 3. Integration of trigeneration system with conventional refrigeration system.
 M.A. Marimón et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434 1429

200

150

Electricity, kWe
100

50

0
0 2190 4380 6570 8760
Time, h

Fig. 5. Hourly electricity demand for the case study of the Barcelona supermarket.

Fig. 4. Streams when the trigeneration system is integrated with the conventional
refrigeration system.
or be sold to the national grid. An electrical compression chiller
and a natural gas fired boiler are used for the air conditioning of
the supermarket. Another absorption chiller unit could be used to
cover the air conditioning cooling demand but this option is not
analysed in this study.
3. Case study
3.1. Supermarket description
The supermarket chosen for the case study is located in
Barcelona, Spain (north 41◦ 41 , east 2◦ 17 ) and consists of the shop-
ping area, processing areas and cold stores. It has a total area of
3000 m2 and the envelope, from inside out, is made of: 25 mm
gypsum, 200 mm cross bars, 10 mm stucco, 150 mm insulation and
120 mm brick. The refrigeration capacities installed at the medium
and low temperature levels of the supermarket are 100 kWc and
40 kWc , respectively. The average lighting is 20 W/m2 . The super-
market is designed for approximately 1500 people per day and it
opens to the public from Monday to Saturday between 9 am and 9
pm.
3.2. Modelling of the supermarket energy supply system
have been simulated using Meteonorm [17] for the city of Barcelona
in CyberMart.
The input values for the ventilation air were 15,000 m3 /h for the
air mass flow and 400 Pa for the pressure drop.
The annual electricity usage for air conditioning, lighting and
refrigeration in the Barcelona supermarket simulated in CyberMart
was found to be 1059.6 MWhe , the annual cooling for air condi-
tioning demand was 50.2 MWhc and the annual heating demand
57.5 MWh.
The annual refrigeration demand for the low and medium cabi-
nets was 1042.8 MWhc . The supermarket’s hourly electricity profile
is shown in Fig. 5. It is clear that the supermarket’s electrical
demand increases significantly in the summer months when the
higher outdoor temperature increases the cooling demand for the
air conditioning and refrigeration system.
The hourly cooling and heating demand in the supermarket is
represented in Fig. 6. In the present analysis, the cooling and heat-
ing demands for air conditioning in the supermarket were satisfied
using an electrical compression chiller and a natural gas boiler,
respectively (Fig. 3).
3.3. Selection of the trigeneration system
The size of the cogeneration and absorption units was selected
on the basis of the cumulative curve of the total refrigeration
demands in the supermarket [18]. To choose an appropriate absorp-
tion chiller, the cumulative curve of the total refrigeration demand
(sum of the demands of the medium and low temperature cabinets)
was obtained (see Fig. 7) using the CyberMart software.
140
120
Cooling and Heating, kW

The model is based on the heat balances of room air, room sur- 100
faces and building structure and assumes that the variation in room
temperature is negligible, the temperatures on the surfaces are the 80
same and the thermal loads such as outdoor temperature, solar
radiation and internal gains are constant during each time interval 60
(1 h in this case). For the calculation of heating and cooling loads,
40
the sales and office areas in the supermarket were assumed to be
one zone. The outdoor climate is an important factor in the energy 20
usage of supermarkets. It affects the indoor climate and the per-
formance of the refrigeration system in several ways. The outdoor 0
temperature, relative humidity, solar irradiation and wind speed 0 2190 4380 6570 8760
influence the indoor climate through the building envelope, the Time, h
ventilation system and infiltration. The air temperature, relative
Fig. 6. Hourly cooling (blue line) and heating (red line) demands in the case study
humidity, wind speed, beam and diffuse radiation on a horizontal of the Barcelona supermarket. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this
surface, height of the sun, solar azimuth and cloud cover fraction, figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
1430 M.A. Marimón et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434

120 Table 1
Annual demand of electricity, heat and cooling with the conventional system in the
supermarket.
Total refrigeration capacity, (%) .

100
Annual supermarket values

80 Total electricity (MWhe ) 1059.6

Heating (MWhth ) 57.5

60
Table 2
40 ICE and absorption unit nominal performance.

Electrical power output (kW) 120

20 Thermal output (kW) 195
Electrical efficiency (%) 33
Thermal efficiency (%) 52
0
0 2190 4380 6570 8760 Absorption chiller
Time, h Numbers of units 2
Chiller capacity (kW) 50
Fig. 7. Cumulative curve of the total refrigeration demand in the supermarket. Driving heat (kW) 91.5
Cooling capacity (kW) 141.5
The absorption chillers selected to provide low temperature Compression chiller (conventional system)
refrigeration (−8 ◦ C) for this trigeneration application are two com- Medium temperature chiller capacity (kW) 170
mercial NH3 /water chillers of 50 kWc each [19]. The cogeneration COP 3
Medium temperature cooling capacity (kW) 238
unit was sized according to the absorption chiller size. An inter-
nal combustion engine was selected to provide the heat to drive Low temperature compression chiller
the absorption chillers because of its flexibility at partial load and Low temperature chiller capacity (kW) 45
COP 3.79
high energy efficiency as a cogeneration unit. The internal com-
bustion engine considered in this article is based on an automotive Compression chiller (back up)
derived internal combustion engine with an electrical capacity of Chiller capacity (kW) 70
COP 2.5
120 kWe and a thermal capacity of 195 kWth [20]. Several trigener-
ation applications using this engine have been studied with good
results [21,22]. Its part load electrical efficiency is high due to a
variable speed operation strategy and it uses an advanced exhaust Table 3
gas after-treatment to meet the most stringent pollutant emission Equipment costs.

regulations. ICE (D /kWe ) 1000

The trigeneration operational strategy is to follow the total ICE O&M/year (D /kWh) 0.0165
refrigeration cabinet demand. Fig. 8(a) and (b) gives a graphic rep- ARS (D /kWc ) 590
ARS O&M/year (D /kWh) 0.008
resentation of the strategies studied to satisfy the refrigeration
Compression chiller (D /kWc ) 160
demand and it can be seen that the internal combustion engine Compression chiller O&M/year (D /kWh) 70
(ICE) can supply all the heat necessary for the absorption chillers.
Various options for managing the trigeneration system have been
analysed. As shown in Fig. 8(a) the options are:
Option 1: The ICE is used at 100% of the load during the first unit. Tables 3 and 4 summarize the cost of the equipment and the
6148 h (period 1) to drive two absorption chillers (2 ARS) and 2612 h utilities used in the economic analysis. The electricity and gas prices
(period 2) to drive one absorption chiller (1 ARS). used in Table 4 are the maximum market prices [23,24]. The price of
Option 2: The internal combustion engine (ICE) drives two electricity sold to the market is based on current subsidies in Spain
absorption chillers (2 ARS) for 6148 h (period 1) at 100% and one for the promotion of cogeneration. This subsidy is a function of
absorption chiller (1 ARS) for 2612 h (period 2) at 75%. the primary energy savings of the system [25]. The operation and
Option 3: The internal combustion engine (ICE) drives two maintenance costs associated with the trigeneration system and
absorption chillers (2 ARS) for 6148 h (period 1) at 100% and one the indirect cascade refrigeration system in the supermarket have
absorption chiller (1 ARS) for 2612 h (period 2) at 50%. also been estimated. The pay-back time and life cycle cost (LCC)
In Fig. 8(b) the option is: of the installations have been evaluated. Savings in primary energy
Option 4: The internal combustion engine (ICE) drives two and CO2 emissions for the trigeneration installation were also eval-
absorption chillers (2 ARS) for 6148 h at 100%. And in the last 2401 h, uated using some of the items of the methodology described in
the two absorption chillers are operated at partial load driven by [26,27].
the internal combustion engine (ICE) operating at 100% of the load. Table 5 shows the results of the different operating strategies
To satisfy the total refrigeration demand of the cabinets and Table 6 summarizes the annual performance of the trigenera-
an additional conventional electrical vapour compression chiller tion with an indirect cascade absorption/compression system and
(compression back up) is used. In case (a), the electrical chiller is the total refrigeration demand covered by the absorption chillers
used not only to cover the peak demand but also when the cooling using the various options. For option 4, the refrigeration capacity
demand is too low to keep the two absorption chillers running. supplied by the trigeneration system is higher than that of the other
options because the two absorption units work at partial load fol-
3.4. Energy, economic and environmental analysis
Table 4
Utilities cost (D /kWh).
Table 1 shows the annual demand for electricity (lighting, cool-
ing, refrigeration and electrical equipment) and heating for the Electricity 0.117
supermarket when a conventional refrigeration system is used. Electricity sold to grid 0.130
Natural gas 0.041
Table 2 shows the performance of the ICE and the absorption chiller
 M.A. Marimón et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434 1431

Fig. 8. Operation strategies for the trigeneration system: (a) trigeneration system using an absorption refrigeration system (ARS) at full load; (b) trigeneration system using
two ARS at partial load.

Table 5
Performance trigeneration with indirect cascade absorption/compression system.

Operating strategy Periods ICE load (%) Number of Configuration Gas consumption Electricity Heating Refrigeration
trigeneration h/year (MWh) (MWhe ) (MWhth ) capacity (MWhc )

Option 1 Period 1 100 6359 ICE+2 ARS at full 2257.4 763.0 1242.0 623.1
load
Period 2 100 2401 ICE+1 ARS at full 852.3 288.1 468.9 117.6
load
Option 2 Period 1 100 6359 ICE+2 ARS at full 2257.4 763.0 1242.0 623.1
load
Period 2 75 2401 ICE+1 ARS at full 623.5 211.2 338.5 117.6
load
Option 3 Period 1 100 6359 ICE+2 ARS at full 2257.4 763.0 1242.0 623.1
load
Period 2 50 2401 ICE+1 ARS at full 424.7 140.1 233.8 117.6
load
Option 4 Period 1 100 6359 ICE+2 ARS at full 2257.4 763.0 1242.0 623.1
load
Period 2 100 2401 ICE+2 ARS at partial 852.3 288.1 468.9 211.7
load

Table 6
Annual performance of trigeneration with indirect cascade absorption/compression system.

Operating strategy trigeneration

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

Total gas consumption (MWh) 3109.8 2880.9 2682.1 3109.8

Total electricity (MWhe ) 1051.2 974.3 903.2 1051.2
Total heating (MWhth ) 1710.8 1580.4 1475.7 1710.8
Total refrigeration capacity (MWhc ) 740.8 740.8 740.8 834.8
Total refrigeration demand covered by absorption (%) 71 71 71 80

lowing the refrigeration demand and the compression chiller back
up is not used in the last 2401 h period.
Table 7 also shows the total investment cost for the trigener-
ation system. It includes the cost of the vapour compression back
up system, the low temperature cabinet compression system, the
Table 7
Total investment cost for the trigeneration system and compression chiller backup.
ICE cost
Cost of absorption chillers
Compression chiller at medium temperature (back up)
Low temperature cabinet compression chiller
Boiler
Total investment trigeneration + compression back
up
Indirect cascade compression system
Boiler
Total investment conventional indirect cascade
refrigeration system
boiler, and the total investment of the conventional indirect cascade
refrigeration system.
The annual energy operating costs were determined using the
energy prices given in Tables 3 and 4. Table 8 shows the cost of
operating the trigeneration system with the different options. The
operating costs for the conventional system are shown in Table 9
for reference.
The annual electricity cost for option 4 is lower than for the
Cost (D )
other options. This is because the electric demand for the vapour
compression chiller is low enough to compensate for a higher con-
120,000
sumption of natural gas.
59,000
116,550 The economic results for the trigeneration system are com-
116,550 pared with those for conventional indirect cascade refrigeration
10,000 in Table 10. The best option as far as payback is concerned is option
422,100 4 with a payback period of less than 5 years.
330,000
A sensitive analysis was carried out to evaluate the impact of the
10,000 natural gas/electricity on the payback energy price ratio. This analy-
340,000 sis is shown in Fig. 9. In this case the cost of natural gas was changed
from 0.031 to 0.046 (D /kW). The reference energy price ratio for
1432 M.A. Marimón et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434

Table 8
Trigeneration + compression system operation costs for the different options.

Trigeneration management

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

Period 1 Period 2 Period 1 Period 2 Period 1 Period 2 Period 1 Period 2

ICE load (%) 100 100 100 75 100 50 100 100

Number h/year 6359 2401 6359 2401 6359 2401 6359 2401
Configuration ICE+2 ARS at ICE+1 ARS at ICE+2 ARS at ICE+1 ARS at ICE+2 ARS at ICE+1 ARS at ICE+2 ARS at ICE+2 ARS at
full load full load full load full load full load full load full load partial load
Annual natural gas −127,501 −118,120 −109,969 −127,501
cost (D )
Annual electricity −106,340 −106,340 −106,340 −101,938
cost (D )
Annual electricity 136,656 126,667 117,419 136,656
sold (D )
Annual O&M ICE −17,344 −16,077 −14,903 −17,344
(D )
Annual O&M −5926 −5926 −5926 −6679
absorption (D )
Annual heating −1414 −1424 −2294 −1596
boiler (D )
Total operation −121,872 −121,221 −122,014 −118,404
cost (D )

Table 9 system throughout its life cycle. To calculate the LCC, the present
Conventional system operation costs.
value of all costs occurring during the period of study need to be
Annual fuel cost (D ) −3143 computed.
Annual electricity (D ) −123,979 The costs during the life cycle are of two types: one-off costs and
Annual O&M (D ) −9000
annually recurring costs. The one-off costs occur one or more times
Total operation cost (D ) −136,122 during the study period: for example, investment, repairs, etc. The
annually recurring costs occur regularly every year: for example,
energy, annual maintenance, etc. The present value of one-off costs
16
can be calculated using the equation:
SCn
12 SCPn = n
[1 + (i − pe)]
where SCPn is the present value of a one-off cost, SCn is the single
Years

8 cost after n years, and pe is the inflation or price escalation.

The present value of annually recurring costs can be calculated
4
using the Uniform Present Value formula:
−n
1 − [1 + (i − pe) ]
RCPn = RCn
0 i − pe
where RCPn is the present value of an annually recurring cost, and
24

25

27

28

30

32

33

35
0.

0.

0.

0.

0.

0.

0.

0.

Ratio (Natural Gas/Electricity Cost)
Fig. 9. Impact of the natural gas/electricity cost ratio on payback.
configuration 4 is 0.315 with a payback of 4.5 years. At ratios higher
than 0.33, the payback increased to more than 10 years.
3.5. Life cycle cost (LCC) analysis
Option 4 was therefore evaluated in more detail using the life
cycle cost (LCC) analysis, a method that evaluates present and
future costs of the investment, operation and maintenance of a
RCn is the annually recurring cost. The LCC formula used is:
LCCtotal = Inv + LCCenergy + LCCO&M + LCCothers
where Inv is the present value of investment, which includes prod-
uct costs, installation, administration, etc. LCCenergy is the present
value of the annual energy cost. LCCO&M is the present value of the
non-fuel operating, maintenance and repair costs and LCCothers is
the present value of other costs.
The investment costs and operating costs used were the same as
the ones used for the payback analysis. Table 11 shows the values
used for the LCC analysis.
Fig. 10 shows the energy costs (in thousands of euros) as a func-
tion of time over a period of 15 years. The blue line represents

Table 10 Table 11
Pay back. Data to calculate LCC.

Trigeneration management Interest rate (%) 6

Time years (n) 15
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4
Price of purchased electricity (D /kWh) 0.117
Additional installed cost (D /year) 82,100 82,100 82,100 82,100 Other fuel price (D /kWh) 0.041
Annual saving (D /year) 14,250 14,901 14,108 17,718.4 Price of the electricity sold (D /kWh) 0.130
Payback (year) 5.8 5.5 5.8 4.6 Price cost increases (%) 3
 M.A. Marimón et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 1427–1434
Table 12
Total CO2 emission of the trigeneration configuration.
Trigeneration + indirect cascade absorption/compression chiller
Natural gas consumption trigeneration (MWh)
Natural gas consumption boiler (MWh)
Electricity consumption supermarket (MWh)
Electricity production (MWh)
Total emission (ton CO2 )
Natural gas consumption boiler (MWh)
Electricity consumption (MWh)
Total emission (ton CO2 )
2,000
Energy cost, (1000* euro)
1,500
1,000
500
0 (project ENE2006-15700-C02-01/CON and ENE2007-29046-E) and
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time, years
Fig. 10. Variation of the energy costs (LCC) for the conventional indirect cascade
refrigeration system (blue line) and the trigeneration system (red line). (For inter-
pretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to
the web version of this article.)
the conventional indirect cascade refrigeration system and the red
line represents the trigeneration systems for option 4 (Absorption
chillers: 2 ARS, working at partial load). The conventional indirect
cascade system (blue line) has an energy cost of around 1,943,000
euros over 15 years and the trigeneration system a cost of around
1,830,000 euros over the same period of time.
3.6. CO2 emission analysis
Table 12 shows the total CO2 emission for the trigeneration
configuration (474.7 tons CO2 ) and for the conventional system
(497.4 tons CO2 ) using an emission factor for the carbon dioxide
intensities of 0.2 tons CO2 /MWh for natural gas and 0.455 tons
CO2 /MWh for electricity in Spain [28]. In comparison to the con-
ventional system, then, the trigeneration system saves around
22.7 tons CO2 /year.
4. Conclusion
In this article it has been presented that the integration of a tri-
generation system with an indirect refrigeration cascade system for
efficient energy usage in a supermarket. This trigeneration config-
uration has been integrated with a vapour compression system to
provide the electricity, heating and refrigeration capacity required
by low and medium cabinets in a supermarket in Barcelona (Spain).
The size of the trigeneration system was selected using the cumula-
tive curve generated by the CyberMart simulation program. Various
operating strategies for the trigeneration system were investigated
by varying the ICE load (100, 75 and 50%) and the absorption
chillers load. An economic analysis was performed using the pay-
back method and the best options showed a return of investment
of 4.6 years. The life cycle cost for a fifteen-year period was calcu-
lated to be around 1,943,000 euros for the conventional system
1433
Consumption Emission factors Spain (tons CO2 /MWh) Emission (tons CO2)
3109.8 0.2 621.9
38.9 0.2 7.7
710.7 0.455 323.3
−1051.2 0.455 −478.2
474.7
76.6 0.2 15.3
1059.6 0.455 482.1
497.4
and around 1,830,000 euros for the trigeneration system. These
economic results are, however, dependent on the subsidies for elec-
tricity sold to the grid. In Spain, subsidies are currently given to
promote efficient cogeneration in Spain. In comparison to the con-
ventional indirect cascade refrigeration system, the environmental
analysis of the trigeneration system shows CO2 emission savings in
the order of 22.7 tons CO2 .
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding for this
work provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science
14 16
the scholarship BES-2007-16086.
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