Energy saving in airports by trigeneration. Part I: Assessing economic and technical potential

Airports are very energy-intensive areas, because of the large buildings (both terminals and non-passengers areas) equipped with heating and air-conditioning systems, the high power demand for lighting and electric equipment and the energy requests from many facilities within the airport area. The contemporaneous and high demand for power and heat makes cogeneration to represent a viable solution for energy saving; in southern climate zones, however, combined heating, cooling and power (CHCP) systems can lead to even better results. This paper constitutes the first part of a work in two parts; starting from an analysis of typical energy demand profiles in airports, economical and technical criteria to assess the feasibility of trigeneration plants are proposed. Typical results for large airports are also presented. Part II of this work presents an in-depth analysis for the Malpensa 2000 airport, oriented to optimize the design and the operation of the CHCP system.