Absorption equipment for energy savings: A case study in Sicily

This paper considers a feasibility study on the recovery of the reject heat available from an electric utility with two units operating with 120-MW gas turbines; these units have a heat recovery system that feeds the district heating pipeline of an industrial consortium. Thus, feeding the expeller of the absorption equipment installed in a cooling plant for foodstuff stocking represents an opportunity for the feasibility study. This plant operates at both 0 degrees C and -18 degrees C. The feasibility study covers two aspects: ( 1) the technical feasibility of a suitable absorption cooling plant that uses two separate pieces of absorption equipment working with the pair ammonia-water and ( 2) the relevant economic venture analysis. The feasibility study pertains to both the optimal design of the absorption equipment and the energetic and exergetic analysis of the plant; moreover, the same type of analysis was performed for a reference case pertaining to a two-stage reciprocating compression refrigerating plant. An economic analysis of the venture demonstrated that the expected time of return on the differential investment is less than 4 years and that the specific investment costs expected given the differential costs between the two alternative options are 11.28(sic)/toe of primary energy savings and 15.84c(sic)/t(CO2,eq) of reduced greenhouse gas emissions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.