A study on the advanced performance of an absorption heater/chiller with a solution preheater using waste gas

A large amount of consumed energy is released to the environment as waste heat, which may be used directly in some applications for useful purposes. Thus, from the standpoint of energy conservation, it will be meaningful to investigate systems with waste heat utilization. It has long been indicated that absorption cycles may have good potential applications for enhancing energy conservation via waste heat recovery. As such they have often been identified as an appropriate subject for research and development. Along this line, this paper also examines the development of an absorption cycle with waste heat utilization. More specifically, this study investigates a double-effect LiBr-water absorption cycle which uses exhaust gases from the burner of the high-temperature generator to preheat the weak absorbent solution on its way from the absorber to the low-temperature generator. The overall performance of the absorption heater/chiller system is analyzed and discussed on the basis of experimental results. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.