Incorporating District Cooling System in Total Site Heat Integration

Total Site Heat Integration (TSHI) is an extension of Pinch Analysis for energy recovery between processes via centralised utility system. Locally Integrated Energy Sector (LIES) is introduced to integrate renewable energy sources and urban energy consumptions with industrial process. This concept has been extended to utilise the industrial low grade heat for district heating system. However, the concept has not been considered for district or centralised space cooling system which are more demanded in tropical countries. In tropical countries like ASEAN, residential and service buildings consumed 59% of the total energy consumption. For Malaysia, the energy consumption for buildings sector is projected to increase by 3.1% per year between 2011 and 2035. The main contributor for this high energy consumption is the cooling system requirement, which includes air conditioners and refrigerators. Industrial low-grade heat can be utilised for operating an absorption refrigerator to generate cooling. This can reduce the energy consumptions for industrial processes, as well as space cooling proposes. This paper introduces a new methodology which incorporates absorption chillers in TSHI to reduce the site cooling requirements. The methodology is illustrated by a literature case study.