The role of absorption cooling for reaching sustainable energy systems

The energy consumption is continuous to increase around the world and with that follows the demand for sustainable solutions for future energy systems. With growing energy consumption from fossil based fuels the threat of global warming through release of CO2 to the atmosphere increases. The demand for cooling is also growing which would result in an increased consumption of electricity if the cooling demand was to be fulfilled by electrically driven cooling technology. A more sustainable solution can be to use heat-driven absorption cooling where waste heat may be used as driving energy instead of electricity. This thesis focuses on the role and potential of absorption cooling in future energy systems. Two types of energy systems are investigated: a district energy system based on waste incineration and a distributed energy system with natural gas as fuel. In both cases, low temperature waste heat is used as driving energy for the absorption cooling. The main focus is to evaluate the absorption technology in an environmental perspective, in terms of reduced CO2 emissions. Economic evaluations are also performed. The reduced electricity when using absorption cooling instead of compression cooling is quantified and expressed as an increased net electrical yield. The results show that absorption cooling is an environmentally friendly way to produce cooling as it reduces the use of electrically driven cooling in the energy system and therefore also reduces global CO2 emissions. In the small-scale trigeneration system the electricity use is lowered with 84 % as compared to cooling production with compression chillers only. The CO2 emissions can be lowered to 45 CO2/MWhc by using recoverable waste heat as driving heat for absorption chillers. However, the most cost effective cooling solution in a district energy system is a combination between absorption and compression cooling technologies according to the study. Absorption chillers have the potential to be suitable bottoming cycles for power production in distributed systems. Net electrical yields over 55 % may be reached in some cases with gas motors and absorption chillers. This small-scale system for cogeneration of power and cooling shows electrical efficiencies comparable to large-scale power plants and may contribute to reducing peak electricity demand associated with the cooling demand.QC 2010120