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Absorption Future
Absorption Future
Absorption Future
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Figure 2. Japan versus USA Absorption Chiller Sales
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
for base load operation. Since the cooling is to Economic Benefits Of Turbine Inlet Cooling
be provided on a continuous basis, a chiller Gas turbine power plants are ideal for providing
(Absorption or Mechanical) or direct refrigeration certain midrange and peaking electric power to
system is used. the grid for onsite power generation, as they
provide a clean source of energy. Gas turbines
An on-line chiller circulates a secondary are responsive to load and are very cost
refrigerant (glycol, water) to the cooling coils in effective, however, they have one drawback.
front of the turbine. This system uses an Gas turbine power performance falls off rapidly
absorption chiller or vapor compression chiller, with ambient air temperature. Economically
water-cooled condensers, cooling tower and reducing inlet air is highly beneficial.
cooling coils. Absorption chillers typically cool Table 1. Installed Cost of Inlet Cooling Equipment
3
A direct refrigeration system uses compressors, Using the installed cost estimates from Table 1,
condensers, a low-pressure recirculation Figure 3 can be constructed showing the relative
system, a high-pressure receiver, and cooling costs of various inlet-cooling schemes.
coils. The refrigerant is directly circulated to the Providing no inlet cooling clearly shows up as
cooling coils in front of the turbine. the most expensive, and the three types of
absorption chillers show up as the least
Refrigeration inlet cooling provides constant expensive options.
power output, regardless of weather, and
constant moisture content of inlet air to facilitate 880
869
NOx control.
860
830
Direct Water Injection: Inlet air evaporative 840
820
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
the electric chiller air inlet cooling system. More Huntsman Chemicals in Houston, TX using
detailed analysis must account for factors such 1,400 ton steam-heated single-effect chiller.
plant capacity and configuration, cost of gas, ⇒ One combined-cycle power plant (57 MW) at
price of electricity, water availability, and plant Trigen’s Energy Park in Nassau, NY using a
operating schedule. 1,200 ton hot-water-heated single-effect
Table 2. Houston Texas Inlet Cooling Example
3 chiller.
⇒ 200 MW combined-cycle plant (five turbines
Industrial Turbine 83.5 MW of 40-MW each) of Fort Lupton
Ambient 95ºF Cogeneration Corp, in Fort Lupton, CO
using two 1,100 ton gas-fired double-effect
Inlet Air 50 ºF chillers.
Evaporative Cooler Power Increase 3.7 MW ⇒ 315 MW cogeneration power plant (three
turbines of 105 MW each) of Calpine
Electric Centrifugal Power Increase 8.9 MW
Corporation in Clear Lake, TX using five
Absorption Chiller Power Increase 11.4 to 11.6 MW 1,600-ton hot water heated absorption
chillers, one 1,200-ton electric centrifugal
chiller, and a chilled water storage system.
12
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
Figure 5.Direct-Fired Double-Effect Chiller/Heater Plant (523 Examining Table 4, one can conclude potential
Tons Chilled Water @44°F, 12 MMbtuh Hot Water @ 200 °F) development projects matching the following:
900ºF
600ºF
Micro-turbine
360ºF
180ºF
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
One company is revamping and upgrading their Micro-turbines, like their larger counterpart, will
existing single-effect chiller line to incorporate experience reductions in capacity with ambient
all the latest design features. (Figure 7) temperatures rising above rated capacity (ISO
conditions are 59°F and Sea Level). Maintaining
A second major manufacturer, that previously air inlet conditions near ISO conditions will allow
made only double-effect machines, has maintenance of power while extending
introduced an entirely new single-effect, maintenance intervals.
indirect-fired product line specifically for BCHP
and ICHP applications. (Figure 8) A very effective BCHP integration that is being
developed is combining gas turbines (or micro-
turbines) with direct-fired double-effect
absorption chillers. Applying a co-fired DFDE
absorption chiller/heater plant to a building has
the following implications:
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
3. Providing the building with power, and exhaust airflow with required combustion air
all the cooling, heating and domestic requirements of the high stage generator.
hot water it requires.
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
Development of Next Generation Air-Cooled combine both approaches in the same machine.
Absorption Systems
The preceding development concept can be Conventional mechanical approaches: Several
improved upon, with innovation. Cooling Asian manufacturers have developed and offer
towers are well understood and have their for sale air-cooled LiBr/H2O chillers using
place in larger commercial applications; mechanical approaches with conventional
however, cooling towers are not well suited for LiBr/H2O chemistry. These products, which use
smaller size applications because of cooling very high efficiency heat exchangers and (in
tower maintenance requirements. some cases) multiple heat exchanger
configurations, are suitable for use at moderate
Air-cooled absorption chillers are not new. summertime temperatures. However, these
They are on the market today but are systems are still limited by the LiBr/H2O
ammonia/water based and less than 10 tons in crystallization limits and are at best marginally
capacity. During the 1980s and 1990s, there adequate (or completely inadequate) for high
have been a number of significant attempts to temperature operation in the hotter climates in
design and manufacture Li/BR water chillers the United States. Additionally, the high
with air-cooled condensers to eliminate the efficiency heat exchangers and the extra heat
need for cooling towers. exchange steps involved in some designs are
significantly more expensive per ton of capacity
The principal technical obstacle to than conventional water cooled LiBr/H2O
manufacturing air-cooled LiBr/H2O absorption absorption chillers. For these reasons the
chillers is the crystallization limit for LiBr/H2O. conventional mechanical approaches to
The crystallization line for LiBr/H2O is very developing and manufacturing air-cooled
close to the working concentrations needed for LiBr/H2O absorption chillers using standard
practical LiBr/H2O absorption chillers. A LiBr/H2O chemistry are not presently considered
second critical consideration is that suitable for use in many U.S. BCHP applications
conventional LiBr/H2O absorption chillers use a (relatively high price and inadequate safety
very effective heat and mass transfer additive margins from crystallization in hotter climates -
(2-Ethyl Hexanol). It is generally accepted that where such BCHP combinations are most
large LiBr/H2O absorption chillers would not needed). Hence, this illustrates the need for
have been commercially practical had it not development of the next-generation of air-cooled
been for the accidental discovery of the heat absorption systems for BCHP applications.
and mass transfer additive decades ago at
Carrier. Numerous additive studies throughout Chemical approach: Many studies have been
the world since then have failed to find and made in an attempt to modify the crystallization
demonstrate a practical heat and mass transfer characteristics of the basic LiBr/H2O system by
additive that is significantly better than the the addition of other chemicals. Numerous
conventionally used 2-Ethyl Hexanol. attempts to find suitable organic and in-organic
chemical combinations have been well
For decades, researchers have tried to develop documented in the literature. A number of
air-cooled LiBr/H2O absorption chillers. Two chemicals have been demonstrated in the
principal technical approaches have been used laboratory to adequately shift crystallization for
in trying to develop air-cooled LiBr/H2O air-cooled operation. Unfortunately all of the
absorption chillers. These two basic suitable chemicals have negative characteristics
approaches are: (1) mechanical design that effectively limit their practical application.
changes (such as very highly efficient heat All the chemicals found to date (in the open
exchangers) to squeeze the air cooled literature) have higher viscosity along with the
operation within the existing LiBr/H2O associated reduction in absorber heat and mass
crystallization limits and (2) adding chemicals to transfer performance (usually described as an
shift the crystallization line to higher undesirable increase in absorber sub-cooling
temperatures to allow air-cooled operation with from about 1ºC to about 15ºC, even for the best
commercially practical margins of safety from performing chemical combinations). This
crystallization using conventional heat reduced absorber performance essentially
exchangers. Each of these two approaches will negates the improved crystallization
be briefly discussed. It is also possible to characteristics of the chemical mixtures, while
also requiring much larger (more expensive)
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
absorbers. Just as an effective heat and mass for smaller BCHP applications (10 RT to 150 RT
transfer additive is considered critical to the sizes where cooling towers are not commonly
commercial feasibility of conventional LiBr/H2O used).
absorption chillers, an equally effective heat
and mass transfer additive could theoretically
solve the poor absorber performance for the
chemical mixtures, while maintaining the
improvement in crystallization characteristics.
Such additive absorption mixture combinations
would theoretically make relatively inexpensive
air cooled absorption chillers possible.
Unfortunately the conventional heat and mass
transfer additive (2-ethyl hexanol) is not
effective with any of the chemical mixtures that
have otherwise displayed crystallization
improvement for LiBr/H2O.
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
0.8
Double-Effect (0.9 to 1.2 COP) One particular triple-effect cycle, using a double-
0.6
condenser coupling (DCC) concept, emerged as
Triple-Effect (1.45 to 1.8 COP)
0.4
the best alternative and was patented by ORNL
0.2 in 1993. This triple-effect cycle was predicted to
0 be more than 30% higher efficiency than
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
equivalent double-effect machines. York, In a
Cooling COP
cost-shared program with DOE, has fabricated
Figure 13: Relative Energy Usage for Large Commercial and extensively tested a 450 ton indirect-fired
Chillers triple-effect chiller based on the DCC cycle
(Figure 14).
Currently, there are no triple-effect absorption
chillers sold commercially. Previous work has
shown that there are theoretically a large
number of cycles that fall into the category of
"triple-efficiency".
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
The indirect-fired triple-effect chiller was rated as 30% more efficient than the previous
operated for a total of about 2000 hours with no generation single-effect ammonia/water
unusual accumulation of non-condensibles in absorption chillers. Currently, 3 RT and 5 RT
continuous operation at different loads. The GAX chiller versions are available, with 10, 15,
COP was close to original predictions. 20, and 25 RT integrated units also available.
Based on the results of the indirect-fired triple- Heating and cooling heat pump versions of the
effect chiller testing, York and DOE are co- GAX chiller are under development and a family
sponsoring a full-scale field demonstration of a of GAX heat pump products is expected to enter
450 – ton direct-fired triple-effect absorption the marketplace in the next few years. In
chiller. Figure 15 shows a model of the direct- heating, the initial GAX heat pump prototypes
fired triple-effect chiller that is now under have already demonstrated efficiencies that are
construction. 33% higher than the best available gas
furnaces. GAX systems have the potential to be
50% more efficient than the best gas furnaces.
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Advanced Building Systems – 2000 Conference, Updated June 16, 2000
Cooling or
Power Out Refrigeration Out Desiccant
-5o to 50o F
-20o to 10oC
Recoverable
Natural Gas
Heat
Absorption Control
Fuel Cell Heat
o
300 F Pump
150o C 140o to 250o F
60o to 120o C
Generator
Recoverable
Supplemental Gas Input 390o F
Heat
200o C
Hot Water
Heat Out
Exchanger
120o to 140o F
50o to 60oC
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