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ISSN Online: 2379-1748

ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-483-0

ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-482-3

4th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference
April, 14–17, 2019 , Las Vegas, NV, USA

TECHNOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF TRI-GENERATION IN COMPUTER, ELECTRONICS, AND ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING

Get access (open in a dialog) pages 603-606
DOI: 10.1615/TFEC2019.ens.028123

Abstract

Due to the types of energy systems and the long distances between power plants and the end use, grid electricity production is inherently inefficient, with more that 66% lost to the environment. However, heat is needed in many manufacturing processes, and combined heat and power (CHP) systems are installed at industrial locations to increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs. Unfortunately, some sectors do not have significant heating loads, and use large amounts of electricity to provide process cooling and meet air-conditioning demands. Thus, another option for a CHP system is to use waste heat to drive a thermally activated cooling system when heat is not needed. One industry that has a low installed capacity of CHP, but has a very high cooling demand, is the computer, electronics, and electrical equipment manufacturing sector. In the present study, a technoeconomic analysis for this manufacturing sector was conducted to determine the benefits of combining CHP with heat driven cooling The tradeoff between total installation cost, operation and maintenance costs, and annual energy savings was determined for several system configurations. Results show that payback for each system was most sensitive to electricity and fuel costs and insensitive to the efficiency of the thermally activated chiller or the fraction of operation time for cooling or heating. The best system had a payback period of 16.3 years. Greater savings could be realized through reductions in thermally driven chilling costs, increasing the efficiency of the generation technology, or utilizing cooling generation only during peak hours.