A comprehensive exergy-based evaluation on cascade absorption-compression refrigeration system for low temperature applications - exergy, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental assessments

The main target of present work is to assess a new cascade absorption-compression refrigeration system from the exergy, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental standpoints. The combined system is simulated by Aspen HYSYS V10, and Matlab software. This hybrid system is able to supply a cooling duty of 60.65 kW with a coefficient of performance of 0.226. Also, the evaporation temperature of this system is calculated to be -54.62 degrees C. In order to analysis the energy quality and performance of this process, an exergy assessment is conducted. Based on the gained outcomes of exergy evaluation, the total exergy efficiency of process is computed to be 69%. As well as, the overall exergy destruction rate is obtained by 83.4 kW, and the greatest value of irreversibility is found to be in the rectifier (16.05 kW). In continue, to evaluate the process economically, the exergoeconomic evaluation is carried out. It was found that the rectifier has the largest amount of investment cost rate (2.817 $/h). As well as, the highest values of relative cost difference (r) and exergoeconomic factor (f) are related to the compressor and gas heat exchanger, respectively. The environmental impacts of hybrid system are determined by combining life cycle assessment and exergy evaluation (exergoenvironmental method). According to the achieved outcomes, it can be noticed that rectifier and low - pressure pump have the largest and least values of environmental impact. At the final stage of this research, to evaluate the interaction between environmental, technical, and economical aspects of process, the 3D parametric assessment is conducted on devices of the auto - cascade refrigeration system. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.