Exergoeconomic assessment of two novel absorption-ejection heat pumps for the purposes of supermarkets simultaneous heating and refrigeration using NaSCN/NH3, LiNO3/NH3 and H2O/NH3 as working pairs

Two novel absorption-ejection heat pump (AEHP) systems are proposed and their feasibility for supermarkets simultaneous heating and refrigeration is assessed from the viewpoints of thermodynamics and exergoeconomics. The proposed systems' performance is compared with that of a conventional compression heat pump. In this study, three different working pairs including NaSCN/NH3, LiNO3/NH3 and H2O/NH3 are utilized for the analyses. Simulations show that the ECOP of the conventional heat pump (system 1) is about 8% and 14% lower than that of the first and second proposed AEHP systems (systems 2 & 3), respectively. Moreover, system 3 has a total product cost of up to 10% and 60% lower than that for systems 2 and 1, respectively. Using NH3/LiNO3 solution on the other hand, can better improve the performance at lower refrigeration evaporator temperatures. Regarding the price of electricity, the proposed systems have economic justification only at electricity costs higher than 9 cent/kWh. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.