Thermoeconomic assessment of an innovative combined cooling, heating, and power system based on biomass combustion, TCO2 cycle, absorption chiller, and desalination

Biomass processing toward sustainable production offers an appropriate way of environmental protection together with supplying the required energy demand for industrial/urban applications. In this regard, this study proposes an innovative thermal process for a biomass combustion unit aimed at generating combined cooling, heating, and power in addition to freshwater. The presented system consists of a transcritical CO2 cycle, an absorption chiller, a heat provider unit, and a multi-effect desalination subsystem. This system is modeled and simulated using the Aspen HYSYS software and is investigated from the viewpoints of energy, exergy, economics, and the environment. The results indicate the ability of the system to yield 19,440 kW of electric power, 4261 kW of heat, 2478 kW of cooling load, and 6.25 kg/s of freshwater. Besides, the energy and exergy efficiencies are found to be 51.93% and 38.78%, respectively. The exergy analysis also exhibits the transcritical CO2 cycle as the primary source of irreversibility, accounting for 88% of the total. Calculating the total cost rate is considered for the economic evaluation, demonstrating the total cost rate and total product cost of 1137 $/h and 15.57 $/GJ, respectively. Besides, the sensitivity analysis is performed on the main variables considering changes in fundamental parameters.