CCHP/ Tri Generation

Combined Cooling Heating and Power (CCHP) or tri generation plants consist of a power generator (eg. a diesel or gas engine) which is providing 1) electricity and hot water to provide 2) heating as well as 3) cooling via hot water driven absorption chillers.

The CCHP therefore provides customers with an integrated solution for electricity, heating and air-conditioning in one system.

Large power plants work rather inefficiently since they do not utilize the waste heate which is produced through the process of power generation. Micro generators combined with small to medium sized hot water driven absorption chillers though will provide power, heating and cooling wherever it is needed. Thus investors can realize energy efficient stand alone solutions covering all the electricity and HVAC needs of their buildings.

In CCHP set ups the generator will provide electricity and hot water produced from the exhaust heat exchanger. The hot water can then be employed for two purposes:  1) to generate heating for heating season or 2) operating a hot water driven absorption chiller, which will generate chilled water for cooling season.

Advantages

CCHP systems allow to operate electricity, hot water, heating and cooling from only one system. The increased efficiency achieved by utilizing the generator's exhaust heat for heating and cooling leads to a reduction of operational costs and CO₂ emissions.

Consider a generator running at 24/ 7/ 365, which will run on gas or Diesel and feed into a electrical AC: using the generator's exhaust heat to operate a hot water driven absorption chiller (eg Yazaki Aroace WFC series), will allow to significantly reduce the generator's fuel consumption or help to reduce the generator investment for new set ups.

In particular, already existing heat driven co-generation systems can benefit from combinations with warm water driven absorption chillers. This way, the co-generation's waste heat can also be used during cooling season, which significantly increases the degree of capacity utilization and reduces the amortisation period of the total invest.