Finite Time Analysis of a Tri-Generation Cycle

Abstract

A review of the literature indicates that current tri-generation cycles show low thermal performance, even when optimised for maximum useful output. This paper presents a Finite Time analysis of a tri-generation cycle that is based upon coupled power and refrigeration Carnot cycles. The analysis applies equally well to Stirling cycles or any cycle that exhibits isothermal heat transfer with the environment and is internally reversible. It is shown that it is possible to obtain a significantly higher energy utilisation factor with this type of cycle by considering the energy transferred during the isothermal compression and expansion processes as useful products thus making the energy utilisation larger than the enthalpy drop of the working fluid of the power cycle. The cycle is shown to have the highest energy utilisation factor when energy is supplied from a low temperature heat source and in this case the output is biased towards heating and cooling.

Exergoeconomic multi objective optimization and sensitivity analysis of a regenerative Brayton cycle

“…They found that the effects of heat transfer loss and variable specific heats of working fluid on the cycle performance were obvious. Agnew et al [12] presented a finite time analysis of a trigeneration cycle that was based upon coupled power and refrigeration Carnot cycles.…”

Optimizing Power and Thermal Efficiency of an Irreversible Variable-Temperature Heat Reservoir Lenoir Cycle

“…According to the nature of the cycle, the researched heat engine (HEG) cycles include steady flow cycles [32][33][34][35][36][37] and reciprocating cycles [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. For the steady flow HEG cycle, considering the temperature change of the heat reservoir (HR) can make the cycle closer to the actual working state of the HEG, therefore, some scholars have studied the steady flow cycles with variable temperature HR [49][50][51][52][53].…”