Thermodynamic analysis of a CCHP system integrated with a regenerative organic flash cycle

•A new CCHP-ST-OFC system is proposed and thermodynamically analyzed.•Effects of operating parameters on system energy performance were studied.•A negative feedback operation strategy was proposed and adopted in a studied case.•The negative feedback strategy decreases natural gas consumption by 9%. Combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) systems have received wide attention for their potential of high efficiency and energy conservation. In this work, a novel CCHP system is designed coupling the solar thermal input (ST) system and the regenerative organic flash cycle (OFC) system. The OFC subsystem could recycle two kinds of heat sources to achieve cascade utilization of heat energy. The CCHP-ST-OFC system is evaluated by comparing with the conventional CCHP system and the CCHP-ST-ORC system (organic Rankine cycle). The effects of several operating parameters on the thermodynamic performance are discussed. Based on the negative feedback regulation, an operation strategy is proposed and applied to buildings to verify the thermodynamic economy. The results demonstrate that the electricity and heat provisions are 275.0 kW and 211.5 kW, which are 4.7 kW and 19.3 kW higher than the CCHP-ST-ORC system. The electricity of the OFC subsystem is 15.0 kW and 47% higher than the ORC system. Moreover, changing the smoke outlet temperature in the waste heat recovery equipment could effectively adjust the heat provision and power generation. The trend of the day and night power generation with the mass flow rate of the heat source is reversed. The energy provision and performance increased with the increasing partial load ratio of the internal combustion engine. The building case study reveals that the exergy efficiency of the CCHP-ST-OFC system is 38.7% and the primary energy ratio is 53.1%, respectively. Meanwhile, the natural gas consumption of the CCHP-ST-OFC system is 5.14 × 105 m3/year, with a 9% reduction than the CCHP-ST-ORC system.