LAUSR

In this paper, the operation performance of three novel kinds of cogeneration systems under design and off-design condition was investigated. The systems are MGT (micro gas turbine) + ORC (organic Rankine cycle) for electricity demand, MGT + ERC (ejector refrigeration cycle) for electricity and cooling demand, and MGT + ORC + ERC for electricity and cooling demand. The effect of 5 different working fluids on cogeneration systems was studied. The results show that under the design condition, when using R600 in the bottoming cycle, the MGT + ORC system has the lowest total output of 117.1 kW with a thermal efficiency of 0.334, and the MGT + ERC system has the largest total output of 142.6 kW with a thermal efficiency of 0.408. For the MGT + ORC + ERC system, the total output is between the other two systems, which is 129.3 kW with a thermal efficiency of 0.370. For the effect of different working fluids, R123 is the most suitable working fluid for MGT + ORC with the maximum electricity output power and R600 is the most suitable working fluid for MGT + ERC with the maximum cooling capacity, while both R600 and R123 can make MGT + ORC + ERC achieve a good comprehensive performance of refrigeration and electricity. The thermal efficiency of three cogeneration systems can be effectively improved under off-design condition because the bottoming cycle can compensate for the power decrease of MGT. The results obtained in this paper can provide a reference for the design and operation of the cogeneration system for distributed energy systems (DES).