Possibility of use adsorption chillers for increase efficiency in conventional power plant

¹ AGH University of Science and Technology, A. Mickiewicza Av. 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
² Jan Dlugosz University, Armii Krajowej Av. 13/15, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland

^* Corresponding author: sztekler@agh.edu.pl

Published online: 28 June 2019

Abstract

Long-term forecasts indicate that the annual increases in electricity demand by 2030 will be approx. 2 ÷ 3% a year. At present, 40% of the world's electricity is produced using coal-fired power plants. Forecasts indicate that coal will still be the predominant fuel used to produce electricity and thus any actions aimed at increasing the efficiency of electricity production are purposeful. Enormous amounts of waste heat, which is not sufficiently used, are released during the process of electricity production. One of the ways to manage it is to use refrigeration systems based on adsorption chillers which would use waste heat to generate cold that would be employed for air-conditioning or process purposes. In this paper, the cycle of a conventional coal-fired power plant was modelled and then the possibilities of using waste heat for generation of cold as well as the impact of a chiller on the operation of a power unit were analysed using IPSEpro software.