Energy and exergy analysis of combined cooling and power system using variable mode adsorption chiller

Adsorption cooling is a promising technology to recover low-temperature waste heat from a diesel genset. In this paper, an advanced adsorption chiller working in variable mode is proposed for the combined cooling and power cycle (CCP) to recover waste heat from the water jacket in the diesel genset. The chiller works on three modes based on the ambient temperature for better heat utilization. In this study, three modes were investigated: single-stage cycle mode, short-duration, and medium-duration mass recovery modes. The results show that the energy and exergy efficiency for a single-stage cycle mode is higher at an ambient temperature lower than 35 °C . In comparison, the mass recovery mode has a higher energy and exergy efficiency at an ambient temperature higher than 35 °C. The annual energy and exergy efficiency for the CCP was investigated when the chiller works with variable modes based on the ambient temperature under DUBAI weather conditions as a case study. The results show an improvement of 14.7% and 14% of the energy and exergy efficiency, respectively, for CCP with a variable mode adsorption chiller compared to diesel genset alone. The results also show the CCP with variable mode adsorption chiller has a slight improvement on both energy and exergy efficiency compared to CCP with a single-stage adsorption chiller at the same ambient conditions.