Optimum operating conditions for a combined power and cooling thermodynamic cycle

The combined production of thermal power and cooling with an ammonia–water based cycle proposed by Goswami is under intensive investigation. In the cycle under consideration, simultaneous cooling output is produced by expanding an ammonia-rich vapor in an expander to sub-ambient temperatures and subsequently heating the cool exhaust. When this mechanism for cooling production is considered in detail, it is apparent that the cooling comes at some expense to work production. To optimize this trade-off, a very specific coefficient-of-performance has been defined. In this paper, the simulation of the cycle was carried out in the process simulator ASPEN Plus. The optimum operating conditions have been found by using the Equation Oriented mode of the simulator and some of the results have been compared with the experimental data obtained from the cycle. The agreement between the two sets proves the accuracy of the optimization results.