Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Parametric analysis of a new combined cooling, heating and power system

with transcritical CO2 driven by solar energy
Jiangfeng Wang ⇑, Pan Zhao, Xiaoqiang Niu, Yiping Dai
Institute of Turbomachinery, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China

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

Article history: In order to utilize renewable energy to meet diverse energy requirements, a new combined cooling, heat-
Received 19 November 2010 ing and power (CCHP) system is proposed to produce cooling output, heating output and power output
Received in revised form 9 December 2011 simultaneously. This proposed system combines a Brayton cycle and a transcritical CO2 refrigeration
Accepted 4 January 2012
cycle with ejector-expansion device, which uses solar energy as the heat source to reduce fossil fuel con-
Available online 11 February 2012
sumption and alleviate environmental problems. A mathematical model is developed to simulate the new
CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven by solar energy under steady-state conditions, and the thermal
Keywords:
efficiency and exergy efficiency are used to evaluate the system performance. The effects of several key
CCHP
Ejector
thermodynamic parameters on the system performance are examined. The results indicate that increas-
Solar energy ing turbine inlet pressure and ejector inlet temperature could lower the efficiency of the system, and
CO2 increasing turbine back pressure and turbine inlet temperature could elevate the efficiency of system.
In addition, as ejector back pressure increases, the thermal efficiency of system decreases, but the exergy
efficiency increases.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The demand for energy is growing faster due to rapid industri-
alization and social growth. Conventional primary energy sources,
such as coal, oil and natural gas, have limited reserves that are ex-
pected not to last for an extended period. Environment-related
problems associated with conventional energy sources are also
continuously increasing. With increasing energy demand, renew-
able energy resources are expected to play an increasing role in fu-
ture energy consumption by reducing fossil fuel consumption and
alleviating environmental problems. In addition, people have vari-
ous energy requirements, such as electricity, heat and cooling in
their daily life or industrial production. So, it is a good concept to
use solar energy to drive a CCHP system to meet diverse energy
requirements.
Generally, conventional CCHP systems use steam turbines, gas
turbines [1,2], stirling engines [3], internal combustion engines
[4] and fuel cells [5,6] as the prime mover to perform the trigener-
ation, and thereby consume lots of fossil fuels. Wu and Wang [7]
have performed an extensive and intensive review of CCHP sys-
tems. This literature research shows that most CCHP systems use
fossil fuel as primary heat source. In resent years, researchers have
paid more attention to the CCHP system driven by solar energy to
reduce primary energy consumption and pollutant emissions. Zhai
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 029 82668704.
E-mail address: jfwang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (J. Wang).
et al. [8] proposed a small scale hybrid solar heating, chilling and
power generation system. Zhai’s CCHP concept employed a para-
bolic trough solar collector with cavity receiver, a screw expander
and silica gel-water adsorption chiller, and their report pointed
out that the proposed system could enhance solar energy conver-
sion efficiency based on the energy and exergy analysis. Fumo
et al. [9] employed solar collectors in CCHP systems to reduce pri-
mary energy consumption and emission of CO2 in office buildings.
By using a base CCHP system, the energy and economic analyzes
were presented and the results showed that solar thermal CCHP
systems could effectively reduce primary energy consumption
and CO2 emission. Guo et al. [10] proposed a new CCHP system
based on solar methanol decomposition with solar energy. This sys-
tem could raise the energy utilization efficiency of the intermedi-
ate-low temperature solar system in existence and partly save
fossil energy. Jing et al. [11] also proposed a novel solar BCHP sys-
tem driven by solar energy and natural gas, and they estimated
the primary energy consumption and pollutant emissions of the so-
lar BCHP system in following the electricity loads and following the
thermal loads operation strategies. Meng et al. [12] proposed a no-
vel trigeneration system based on metal hydrides driven by solar
energy and industrial waste heat to utilize the low grade heat en-
ergy efficiently. Similarly, Wang et al. [13] proposed a novel CCHP
system driven by solar energy, which combined an organic Rankine
cycle and an ejector refrigeration cycle, and conducted a parameter
optimization to obtained best performance. Tora and El-Halwagi
[14] developed a systematic procedure for the optimal design

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.01.007
 J. Wang et al. / Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64
Nomenclature
h enthalpy (kJ kg1)
m mass flow rate (kg s1)
p pressure (MPa)
Q heat load (kW)
s entropy (kJ kg1 K1)
t temperature (°C)
T temperature (K)
W power (kW)
x quality
Greek letters
l entrainment ratio
g efficiency
trigeneration systems while incorporating solar energy as a renew-
able energy with low emissions. None of them uses natural sub-
stance as the working fluid, such as carbon dioxide. Carbon
dioxide has no toxicity, no flammability, zero ODP (Ozone Depres-
sion Potential), negligible GWP (Global Warming Potential), excel-
lent heat transfer coefficient, compatibility with material and very
low cost [15,16].
Therefore, a new CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven by
solar energy is proposed. This system integrates a Brayton cycle
with a transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle to produce cooling out-
put, heating output and power output simultaneously. The cooling
effect is produced by a CO2 refrigeration cycle with an ejector-
expansion device. The ejector is employed instead of throttle valve
(as in conventional vapor compression refrigeration cycles) be-
cause it can recover the expansion process losses and reduce the
compression work of the compressor owing to the higher compres-
sor suction pressure, which was proposed by Kornhauser [17] and
studied by Harrell and Kornhauser [18], Manegay and Kornhauser
[19], Wongwises and Disawas [20,21]. The transcritical CO2 refrig-
eration cycle with ejector-expansion device has been and reported
in many papers [22–26] as a method to improve the cycle
performance.
In the present study, a thermodynamic simulation of the new
CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven by solar energy is
achieved based on a mathematical model using a simulation pro-
gram under steady-state conditions. The effects of several key ther-
modynamic parameters on the system performance are examined.
The investigation can provide a foundation for design of the pro-
posed CCHP by solar energy.
2. System description
Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of the new CCHP system
with transcritical CO2 driven by solar energy. The overall system
is divided into two subsystems: solar collector subsystem and
CCHP subsystem. Fig. 2 shows the T-s diagram for the proposed
CCHP subsystem.
2.1. The solar collector subsystem
This subsystem consists of solar collectors, a thermal storage
tank and an auxiliary heater. The solar collectors are used as a main
energy source to supply heat to the whole system. The thermal
storage tank is used as heat source when solar radiation is not suf-
ficient. The auxiliary heater is installed as the backup heat source
59
Subscripts
C compressor
df ejector outlet
E evaporator
exg exergy
H heater
NET net
pf primary flow
s isentropic process
sf secondary flow
thm thermal
T turbine
u useful
0 reference state
to boost the temperature of thermal storage tank to the allowable
reference temperature when the temperature of thermal storage
tank drops below the allowable reference temperature.
A compound parabolic collector (CPC) is used to collect the solar
radiation because it could achieve higher concentration for large
acceptance angle and require only intermittent sun-tracking. In
addition, the CPC can achieve a higher temperature than flat-plate
solar collector.
2.2. The CCHP subsystem
The CCHP subsystem consists of a compressor, a gas heater, a
turbine, a heater, a gas cooler, an ejector, a separator, an evaporator
and throttle valves. Sub-critical CO2 is drawn into the compressor
and compressed to a supercritical state. The supercritical CO2 en-
ters the gas heater where its temperature is raised by absorbing
the heat from the hot fluid, which is the thermal storage medium
from thermal storage tank, such as hot water or thermal oil. The
high-temperature supercritical CO2 enters the turbine, where it ex-
pands to a low supercritical pressure to produce power. The ex-
haust CO2 leaving the turbine enters the heater to supply the
heat to the heating user, and then rejects heat in the gas cooler.
The flow coming from the gas cooler is used as the primary flow
to drive an ejector to entrain secondary vapor from the evaporator.
The CO2 stream leaving the ejector flows into the separator where
it is divided into saturated liquid and saturated vapor streams. The
saturated liquid enters the evaporator through a throttle valve, and
a part of the saturated vapor is also fed back to the evaporator
through a throttle valve. The CO2 in the evaporator is vaporized
by absorbing heat to produce the cooling effect.
It should be noted that a part of the saturated vapor is fed back
to the evaporator through a throttle valve to regulate the quality at
the evaporator inlet, just as that in Ref. [22]. Without this saturated
vapor stream, the entrainment ratio of the ejector and the quality
of the ejector outlet has to satisfy the equation of x5 ¼ 1=ð1 þ lÞ to
meet the mass conservation constraint for steady-state operation
of the new CCHP system. However, it is hard to satisfy the equation
of x5 ¼ 1=ð1 þ lÞ, because the entrainment ratio of the ejector is
determined by the primary flow and secondary flow and the ejec-
tor outlet pressure for a given ejector configuration. The part of the
vapor from the separator, which is fed back to the evaporator
through a throttle valve, could free the constraint between the
entrainment ratio of the ejector and the quality of the ejector out-
let stream. The throttle valve can be controlled by the liquid level
in the separator to ensure that the mass conservation is being sat-
isfied to maintain a steady-state operation.
60 J. Wang et al. / Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the new CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven by solar energy.

(6) The flows across the throttle valves are isenthalpic.

(7) The compressor and the turbine have a given isentropic effi-
ciency, respectively.

3.1. The solar collector subsystem

The detailed descriptions about the mathematical model of the

solar collector subsystem model and simulation conditions are in
earlier report [13].

3.2. The CCHP subsystem

The CCHP subsystem includes some turbo-machines, some heat

exchangers and other components. Each component in the CCHP
subsystem can be treated as a control volume. The conservation
of mass and energy principle applied to each component can be ex-
pressed as follows:
!
X
Fig. 2. T-s diagram of the new CCHP system with transcritical CO2.
Din
out mi ¼0 ð1Þ
i

! ! !
3. Mathematical model X X X
Din
out mi  hi þ Din
out Qj þ Din
out Wk ¼0 ð2Þ
i j k
The new CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven by solar en-
ergy has been modeled based on the mass, momentum and the en- The ejector is the key component in this CCHP system. Its sim-
ergy conservations. To simplify the theoretical model, some ulation is carried out based on the one-dimensional constant pres-
assumptions are made as follows: sure flow model used by most researchers in studying ejector
refrigeration systems. The basic principle of the model was intro-
(1) The system reaches a steady state. duced by Keenan et al. [27], and developed by Huang et al. [28]
(2) The pressure drops in the gas heater, the heater, the gas and Ouzzane and Aidoun [29]. Some assumptions to simplify the
cooler, the separator, the evaporator and the connection model of ejector are made as follows:
tubes are neglected.
(3) There is no heat transfer with the environment for the pro- (1) The flow inside the ejector is in steady state and one-
posed CCHP system. dimensional.
(4) The vapor stream from the separator is saturated vapor and (2) The primary and secondary flow at the inlet of the ejector
the liquid stream from the separator is saturated liquid. and the mixed flow at the outlet of the ejector are at stagna-
(5) The stream at the evaporator outlet is saturated vapor. tion conditions.
 J. Wang et al. / Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64 61

(3) For simplicity, the effects of frictional and mixing losses in evaluate the cycle performance from the energy quality. Exergy
the nozzle, diffuser and mixing section are taken into efficiency is defined as the exergy output divided by the exergy in-
account by using the nozzle efficiency, the mixing efficiency put to the overall system, which can be given by
and the diffuser efficiency.
W NET þ EE þ EH
(4) Whenever the mixed flow is supersonic, a normal shock gexg ¼ ð12Þ
wave is assumed to occur upstream of diffuser inlet. Eu
(5) Mixing process in the mixing section of ejector occurs at Eu is the exergy input to the overall system from the solar col-
constant pressure and complies with the conservation of lector, which is given as
energy and momentum.  
(6) The ejector does not exchange heat with the surroundings. T0
Eu ¼ Q u 1  ð13Þ
T sc
Based on the above assumptions, the mass, momentum and en- EE is the exergy associated with the refrigeration output, which
ergy equations are applied to each section for an ejector. The de- is calculated as the working fluid exergy difference across the
tailed description of the mathematical model for ejector is given evaporator.
in earlier report [30].
The entrainment ratio of ejector is defined as: EE ¼ mE  ½ðhE;in  hE;out Þ  T 0 ðsE;in  sE;out Þ ð14Þ
msf EH is the heat exergy output, which is given by
l¼ ð3Þ
mpf  
T0
It should be noted that the entrainment ratio of the ejector and
EH ¼ Q H 1  ð15Þ
T hc
the quality of the ejector outlet must satisfy the Eq. (4) to realize
the proposed CCHP system.
4. Results and discussion
1
x5 > ð4Þ
1þl
The simulation of the CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven
The vapor and liquid enthalpies at the outlet of the separator by solar energy was carried out using a simulation program writ-
can be obtained from the following property relations: ten by authors with Fortran. The thermodynamics properties of
CO2 were calculated by REFPROP [31] developed by the National
h11 ¼ f ðpdf ; x ¼ 1Þ ð5Þ
Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States.
In the present study, the proposed system with a level of
h6 ¼ f ðpdf ; x ¼ 0Þ ð6Þ
100 kW is simulated to validate the feasibility for this new concept.
According to the mass balance, the fed back vapor stream flow The conditions of simulation for the new CCHP system are summa-
rate is given by rized in Table 1. Table 2 shows the thermodynamic state of the
CCHP system driven by solar energy, and Table 3 shows the results
m12 ¼ ðx5 ð1 þ lÞ  1Þ  m4 ð7Þ
of thermodynamic simulation.
And the saturated liquid flow rate leaving the separator is ex- The parametric analysis is achieved to evaluate the effects of
pressed as each key parameter on the system performance in the CCHP sys-
tem. In the parametric analysis, where one parameter is varied,
m6 ¼ ð1 þ lÞð1  x5 Þ  m4 ð8Þ
the other parameters are kept constant as those in Table 1.
In the compressor, the isentropic efficiency can be given by Fig. 3 shows the effect of turbine inlet pressure on the system
performance. It is obvious that as the turbine inlet pressure in-
h14s  h13
gC ¼ ð9Þ creases, both turbine power output and compressor power input
h14  h13
increase correspondingly owing to the increasing pressure ratio
In the turbine, the isentropic efficiency of the turbine can be ex- across the turbine and compressor. It is also found that the heat
pressed as output decreases as the turbine inlet pressure increases. This is be-
cause that the turbine exhaust temperature can be reduced with
h1  h2
gT ¼ ð10Þ the increasing turbine inlet pressure. In addition, the refrigeration
h1  h2s
capacity increases as the turbine inlet pressure increases. The rea-
son for this is that the compressor outlet temperature increases
3.3. System performance with the increasing pressure ratio, and the temperature difference

The overall system performance can be evaluated by the ther-

Table 1
mal efficiency. Thermal efficiency of the overall system is defined
Conditions of simulation for the proposed CCHP system.
as the useful energy output divided by the total solar energy input,
given by Environment temperature (°C) 15.0
Environment pressure (MPa) 0.10135
W NET þ Q E þ Q H Auxiliary heater outlet temperature (°C) 230.0
gthm ¼ ð11Þ Thermal storage tank inlet temperature (°C) 180.0
Qu
Turbine inlet pressure (MPa) 15.0
where WNET is the net power output produced by the system, QE is Turbine inlet temperature (°C) 220
the refrigeration output, QH is the heat output and Qu is the total Turbine back pressure (MPa) 7.6
Ejector inlet temperature (°C) 36
heat added to the system from the solar collectors. Ejector back pressure (MPa) 5.47
Based on the first law of thermodynamics or law of conserva- Heater outlet temperature (°C) 70.0
tion of energy, work and heat are equivalent. But based on the Refrigeration temperature (°C) 5.0
second law of thermodynamics, exergy quantifies the difference Turbine isentropic efficiency (%) 85
Compressor isentropic efficiency (%) 80
between work, heat or/and cooling in terms of irreversibility, or
Minimum temperature difference of heat exchanger (°C) 10.0
change in energy quality. Therefore, the exergy efficiency can
62 J. Wang et al. / Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64

Table 2 70 72
Results of simulation for the proposed CCHP system.
60
State t (°C) p (MPa) x h (kJ kg1) s (kJ kg1 K1) m (kg s1) WT 64

1 220.00 15.0000 1.000 640.053 2.184 0.561 50 WC

WT , WC , QE , QH /kW
2 159.07 7.6000 1.000 595.200 2.202 0.561 QE 56
3 70.00 7.6000 1.000 482.016 1.907 0.561
40 QH
4 36.00 7.6000 1.000 399.045 1.650 0.561

η /%
ηthm 48
5 18.09 5.4700 0.955 405.830 1.704 0.730
30 ηexg
6 18.09 5.4700 0.000 249.682 1.168 0.033
7 5.00 3.9649 0.172 249.682 1.177 0.033 40
8 5.00 3.9649 0.782 381.239 1.650 0.169 20
9 5.00 3.9649 1.000 428.364 1.819 0.169
10 5.00 3.9649 0.930 413.234 1.765 0.136 10 32
11 18.09 5.4700 1.000 413.234 1.729 0.697
12 18.09 5.4700 1.000 413.234 1.729 0.136 0 24
13 18.09 5.4700 1.000 413.234 1.729 0.561 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0
14 97.07 15.0000 1.000 457.892 1.754 0.561 Turbine back pressure /MPa
15 233.22 4.000 0.000 1014.880 2.571 10.000
16 230.00 4.000 0.000 1001.140 2.544 10.000 Fig. 4. Effect of turbine back pressure on the system performance.
17 230.00 4.000 0.000 1001.140 2.544 0.471
18 180.00 4.000 0.000 784.371 2.091 0.471

70 60

55
Table 3 60
The results of the proposed CCHP system. WT
WC 50
50
Turbine power (kW) 25.182 W , W , Q , Q /kW QE
Compressor power (kW) 25.073 H 45
40 QH
Refrigeration output (kW) 7.966

η /%
ηthm
E

Heating output (kW) 63.545 40

Heat absorption from solar collector (kW) 135.277 30 ηexg
C

35
Heat exergy (kW) 16.314
T

Cooling exergy (kW) 0.286 20

30
Exergy input from solar collector (kW) 58.022
Thermal efficiency (%) 53.0 10 25
Exergy efficiency (%) 28.8
0 20
5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8
Ejector back pressure /MPa
90 60
Fig. 5. Effect of ejector back pressure on the system performance.
80 56

70 52
WT It is also found that the heat output increases as the turbine back
WT, WC, QE, QH /kW

60 48
WC pressure increases. This is because that the temperature of the tur-
50 QE 44 bine exhaust increases with the increasing turbine back pressure.
η /%

40
QH
ηthm
30 ηexg
20
10
0 24
8 10 12 14 16
Turbine inlet pressure /MPa
Fig. 3. Effect of turbine inlet pressure on the system performance.
of the cold side for the gas heater decreases with the constant heat
transfer, resulting in an increase in mass flow rate through the gas
heater. Thus, the increasing mass flow rate of primary flow through
the ejector contributes to the increasing entrainment of secondary
vapor, resulting in an increase in refrigeration capacity. With the
increasing turbine inlet pressure, both thermal efficiency and exer-
gy efficiency of the system decrease.
Fig. 4 shows the effect of turbine back pressure on the system
performance. It is obvious that as the turbine back pressure in-
creases, the turbine power output decreases undoubtedly. It is
known that the enthalpy drop across the turbine decreases as the
pressure ratio decreases. The compressor power input is kept con-
stant owing to unchanged inlet and outlet state of the compressor.
40 In addition, the refrigeration output increases as the turbine back
pressure increases. The reason for this is that the increasing tur-
36
bine back pressure increases the pressure of the primary flow
32 entering the ejector. Thus, primary flow velocity leaving the nozzle
in ejector increases, which contributes to the increasing entrain-
28
ment of secondary vapor. In addition, the quality of CO2 leaving
the ejector decreases with the increasing turbine back pressure,
18
and this can decrease the mass flow rate of the saturated vapor
fed back to the evaporator through a throttle valve, resulting in a
decrease in quality of CO2 entering the evaporator. Thus, the en-
thalpy difference through the evaporator increases, resulting in
an increase in refrigeration output. With the increasing turbine
back pressure, both thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of
the system increase.
Fig. 5 shows the effect of ejector back pressure on the system
performance. It is evident that the compressor power decreases
as the ejector back pressure increases because of the decreasing
pressure ratio. Due to the increasing compressor inlet pressure
and unchanged compressor outlet pressure, the compressor outlet
temperature decreases. Thus, the temperature difference of the
cold side for the gas heater increases with the constant heat trans-
fer, resulting in a decrease in mass flow rate through the gas hea-
ter. The turbine power output decreases owing to the decreasing
mass flow rate through the turbine. The heat output also decreases
because of the decreasing mass flow rate through the heater. It also
 J. Wang et al. / Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64 63

70 55 30 70
QE
60 50 ηthm
WT 25 60
ηexg
WC
45
WT , WC , QE , QH /kW

50
QE 20 50
QH
40 40

Q E /kW
η thm

η /%

η /%
15 40
30
η exg 35

10 30
20 30

5 20
10 25

0 20 0 10
210 212 214 216 218 220 33 34 35 36 37
Turbine inlet temperature / Ejector inlet temperature /

Fig. 6. Effect of turbine inlet temperature on the system performance. Fig. 7. Effect of ejector inlet temperature on the system performance.

can be seen that the refrigeration output decreases as the ejector 10 55

back pressure increases. The reason for this is that both the
decreasing mass flow rate of the primary vapor entering the ejector 50
and the increasing ratio of ejector pressure to evaporator pressure 8

make the entrainment of secondary vapor decrease, resulting in a 45

QE
decrease in refrigeration output. In addition, as the ejector back 6 ηthm
Q E /kW 40
pressure increases, the thermal efficiency of the system increases, ηexg

η /%
but the exergy efficiency of system decreases. 35
4
Fig. 6 shows the effect of turbine inlet temperature on the sys-
tem performance. As the turbine inlet temperature increases, the 30
temperature difference of the cold side for the gas heater increases 2
with the constant heat transfer, resulting in a decrease in mass 25

flow rate through the gas heater. Thus, the turbine power and com-
pressor power decrease because of the decreasing mass flow rate
through the turbine and the compressor. Due to the decreasing
mass flow rate of the primary flow, the entrainment of secondary
vapor decreases, resulting in a decrease in refrigeration output.
Although the mass flow rate through the heater decreases, turbine
exhaust temperature increases, resulting in an increase in heat out-
put. With the increasing turbine inlet temperature, both thermal
efficiency and exergy efficiency of the system increase.
It is obvious that the ejector inlet temperature has no effect on
the turbine power, compressor power and heat output under the
given conditions. The effect of ejector inlet temperature on the
refrigeration output and efficiency of the system is shown in
Fig. 7. It can be seen that the refrigeration output decreases with
an increase in ejector inlet temperature. A high ejector inlet tem-
perature results in a high quality of CO2 leaving the ejector. A high
quality of CO2 leaving the ejector can increase the mass flow rate of
the saturated vapor which is fed back to the evaporator through a
throttle valve, and the quality of CO2 entering the evaporator also
increases, thus, the enthalpy difference through the evaporator de-
creases, resulting in a decrease in refrigeration output. Due to the
decreasing refrigeration output with the increasing ejector inlet
temperature, both thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of the
system decrease.
It is also obvious that the evaporator temperature has no effect
on the turbine power, compressor power and heat output under
the given conditions. The effect of evaporator temperature on the
refrigeration output is shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen that the
refrigeration output increases slightly as the evaporator tempera-
ture increases. On the one hand, the latent heat decreases with
the increasing evaporator temperature owing to an increase in
evaporator pressure. In addition, the quality of CO2 leaving the
ejector increases with the increasing evaporator temperature,
and this can increase the mass flow rate of the saturated vapor
which is fed back to the evaporator through a throttle valve, and
0 20
2 3 4 5 6
Evaporator temperature /
Fig. 8. Effect of evaporator temperature on the system performance.
the quality of CO2 entering the evaporator also increases. Thus,
the enthalpy difference through the evaporator decreases, result-
ing in a decrease in refrigeration capacity. On the other hand, since
the pressure as well as mass flow rate of the primary flow remain
constant and the secondary mass flow rate increases with the
increasing evaporator temperature, the refrigeration capacity in-
creases. Due to the combined effects of enthalpy difference and
mass flow rate through the evaporator, the refrigeration output in-
creases slightly, resulting in a little effect on the thermal efficiency
and exergy efficiency of the system.
The proposed CCHP system is a new concept to perform the tri-
generation using solar energy. The turbine power mainly makes up
for compressor work consumption to reduce external electricity
consumption. Surplus turbine power can be input to power grid.
On the contrary, if turbine power is insufficient, compressor power
can be made up for by power grid. The thermo-economic analysis
is required to be conducted to evaluate the cost of system, and the
experimental study is also required be carried out to validate the
feasibility of the proposed CCHP system in the future.
5. Conclusions
The main objective of the present study is to propose a new
CCHP system with transcritical CO2 driven by solar energy to solve
the energy and environment problems and meet diverse energy
requirements. This proposed system combines a Brayton cycle
and a transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with ejector-expansion
device to produce cooling output, heating output and power out-
64 J. Wang et al. / Applied Energy 94 (2012) 58–64
put simultaneously. The main conclusions drawn from present
study are summarized as follows:
(1) As turbine inlet pressure and ejector inlet temperature
increase, respectively, both thermal efficiency and exergy
efficiency of the system decrease.
(2) As turbine back pressure and turbine inlet temperature
increase, respectively, both the thermal efficiency and exer-
gy efficiency of system increase.
(3) As ejector back pressure increases, the thermal efficiency of
system decreases, but the exergy efficiency increases.
(4) The variation of evaporator temperature has a little effect on
the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of system.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
51106117), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province
(Grant No. 2011JQ7002) and the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities.
References
[1] Kong XQ, Wang RZ, Huang XH. Energy optimization model for a CCHP system
with available gas turbines. Appl Therm Eng 2005;25(2–3):377–91.
[2] Khaliq A. Exergy analysis of gas turbine trigeneration system for combined
production of power heat and refrigeration. Int J Refrig 2009;32(3):534–45.
[3] Kong XQ, Wang RZ, Huang XH. Energy efficiency and economic feasibility of
CCHP driven by stirling engine. Energy Convers Manage 2004;45(9–
10):1433–42.
[4] Kong XQ, Wang RZ, Li Y, Huang XH. Optimal operation of a micro-combined
cooling, heating and power system driven by a gas engine. Energy Convers
Manage 2009;50(3):530–8.
[5] Al-Sulaiman FA, Dincer I, Hamdullahpur F. Exergy analysis of an integrated
solid oxide fuel cell and organic Rankine cycle for cooling, heating and power
production. J Power Sources 2010;195(8):2346–54.
[6] Al-Sulaiman FA, Dincer I, Hamdullahpur F. Energy analysis of a trigeneration
plant based on solid oxide fuel cell and organic Rankine cycle. Int J Hydrogen
Energy 2010;35(10):5104–13.
[7] Wu DW, Wang RZ. Combined cooling, heating and power: a review. Prog
Energy Combust Sci 2006;32(5–6):459–95.
[8] Zhai H, Dai YJ, Wu JY, Wang RZ. Energy and exergy analyses on a novel hybrid
solar heating, cooling and power generation system for remote areas. Appl
Energy 2009;86(9):1395–404.
[9] Fumo N, Chamra LM,Bortone V. Potential of solar thermal energy for CCHP
systems. In: Proceedings of the ASME 3rd international conference on energy
sustainability. vol. 2; 2009. p. 57–3.
[10] Guo D, Sui J, Jing HG. Combined cooling, heating and power based on methanol
decomposition with solar energy. J Eng Thermophys 2009;30(10):1621–4.
[11] Jing YY, Bai He, Wang JJ, Liu L. Life cycle assessment of a solar combined
cooling heating and power system in different operation strategies. Appl
Energy 2012;92:843–53.
[12] Meng XY, Yang FS, Bao ZW, Deng JQ, Serge NN, Zhang ZX. Theoretical study of a
novel solar trigeneration system based on metal hydrides. Appl Energy
2010;87(6):2050–61.
[13] Wang JF, Dai YP, Gao L, Ma SL. A new combined cooling, heating and power
system driven by solar energy. Renew Energy 2009;34(12):2780–8.
[14] Tora EA, El-Halwagi MM. Integrated conceptual design of solar-assisted
trigeneration systems. Comput Chem Eng 2011;35(9):1807–14.
[15] Lorentzen G. Revival of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. Int J Refrig
1994;17(5):292–301.
[16] Lorentzen G. The use of natural refrigerants: a complete solution to the CFC/
HCFC predicament. Int J Refrig 1995;18(3):190–7.
[17] Kornhauser A. The use of an ejector as a refrigerant expander. In: Proceedings
of the USNC/IIR-Purdue refrigeration conference; 1990. p. 10–19.
[18] Harrell G, Kornhauser A. Performance tests of a two-phase ejector. In:
Proceedings of the 30th intersociety energy conversion engineering
conference, Orlando; 1995. p. 49–3.
[19] Menegay P, Kornhauser A. Improvements to the ejector expansion
refrigeration cycle. In: Proceedings of the 31th intersociety energy
conversion engineering conference, Washington; 1996. p. 702–6.
[20] Disawas S, Wongwises S. Experimental investigation on the performance of
the refrigeration cycle using a two-phase ejector as an expansion device. Int J
Refrig 2004;27(6):587–94.
[21] Wongwises S, Disawas S. Performance of the two-phase ejector expansion
refrigeration cycle. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 2005;48(19–20):4282–6.
[22] Li D, Groll A. Transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with ejector-expansion
device. Int J Refrig 2005;28(5):766–73.
[23] Deng J, Jiang P, Lu T, Lu W. Particular characteristics of transcritical CO2
refrigeration cycle with an ejector. Appl Therm Eng 2007;27(2–3):381–8.
[24] Yari M, Sirousazar M. Cycle improvements to ejector-expansion transcritical
CO2 two-stage refrigeration cycle. Int J Energy Res 2008;32(7):677–87.
[25] Sarkar J. Optimization of ejector-expansion transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle.
Energy 2008;33(9):1399–406.
[26] Yari M. Performance analysis and optimization of a new two-stage ejector-
expansion transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle. Int J Therm Sci
2009;48(10):1997–2005.
[27] Keenan J, Neumann E, Lustwerk F. An investigation of ejector design by
analysis and experiment. J Appl Mech-Trans ASME 1950;17(3):299–309.
[28] Huang B, Chang J, Wang C, Petrenko V. A 1-D analysis of ejector performance.
Int J Refrig 1999;22(5):354–64.
[29] Ouzzane M, Aidoun Z. Model development and numerical procedure for
detailed ejector analysis and design. Appl Therm Eng 2003;23(18):2337–51.
[30] Dai YP, Wang JF, Gao L. Exergy analysis, parametric analysis and optimization
for a novel combined power and ejector refrigeration cycle. Appl Therm Eng
2009;29(10):1983–90.
[31] NIST Standard Reference Database 23. NIST thermodynamic and transport
properties of refrigerants and refrigerant mixtures REFPROP, version 6.01;
1998.