Analysis of an optimal resorption cogeneration using mass and heat recovery processes

Highlights: • Resorption cogeneration for electricity and refrigeration generation. • Mass and heat recovery to further improve the performance. • The first and second law analysis. - Abstract: This paper presents an optimised resorption cogeneration using mass and heat recovery to improve the performance of a novel resorption cogeneration fist proposed by Wang et al. This system combines ammonia-resorption technology and expansion machine into one loop, which is able to generate refrigeration and electricity from low-grade heat sources such as solar energy and industrial waste heat. Two sets of resorption cycle are designed to overcome the intermittent performance of the chemisorption and produce continuous/simultaneous refrigeration and electricity. In this paper, twelve resorption working pairs of salt complex candidates are analysed by the first law analysis using Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The optimal resorption working pairs from the twelve candidates under the driven temperature from 100 °C to 300 °C are identified. By applying heat/mass recovery, the coefficient of performance (COP) improvement is increased by 38% when the high temperature salt (HTS) is NiCl₂ and by 35% when the HTS is MnCl₂. On the other hand, the energy efficiency of electricity has also been improved from 8% to 12% with the help of heat/mass recovery. The second law analysis has also been applied to investigate the exergy utilisation and identify the key components/processes. The highest second law efficiency is achieved as high as 41% by the resorption working pair BaCl₂–MnCl₂ under the heat source temperature at 110 °C.