Assessment of pollutants emission of two residential micro-CHP systems

In this work the characterization of pollutants emission of two different commercial prime movers producing electricity and heat during the cold season for a multi-apartment housing situated in Italy is addressed. In particular, an internal combustion engine and a microturbine, both fed by natural gas, have been analyzed separately. For each prime mover, the emission of CO₂, CO and NO_x resulting from two different optimized operation modes are reported and discussed. The results show that the micro-CHP system with the internal combustion engine as prime mover involves a marked augmentation of dangerous CO and NO_X emissions on a local scale.