Simulation research on a variable-lift absorption cycle and its application in waste heat recovery of combined heat and power system

Abstract To solve the dilemma between temperature lift capability and coefficient of performance (COP) when absorption heat pump is applied in low grade heat utilization, a variable-lift absorption cycle and an improved one based on it are introduced here. The variable-lift absorption cycles have relatively simple systems and contains enough number of absorbers and condensers to develop plenty of gradually increasing temperature levels to match heating process. For a given heating demand and waste heat temperature level, the results of application of variable-lift absorption cycles in waste heat recovery of combined heat and power(CHP) system show that, the variable-lift cycles can always work efficiently when return water temperature of primary heating network (PHN) varies from 30 °C to 50 °C. The needed heat source temperatures of variable-lift cycles are always over 12 °C lower than single effect cycle. The higher return water temperature of PHN yields more obvious advantage of the improved cycle. When the return water temperature of PHN is 50 °C, variable lift-2C cycle and variable lift-3C cycle can reduce the equivalent power consumption for space heating by 8.5% and 15% respectively when comparing to single effect cycle. The essence of the variable-lift cycles is further clarified from the heat transfer analysis in T-Q diagram.