Exergy evaluation of a trigeneration plant applied to industry sector: an Italian case study

Nowadays, technology development in the direction of more sustainable energy is imperative. Energy cogeneration and the use of renewable energy sources provide key solutions for reaching these objectives. In situations when seasonal changes in heat demand limit the operation of a full cogeneration system, combined cold-heat-and-power can be employed. To evaluate such energy systems, exergy analysis can be helpful because it can assess the variation in the quality of energy carriers. Among the sectors where exergy assessment is widely applied is the building sector, wherein renewable sources are also used. Some works adopted this kind of exergetic approach also to industries equipped with cogeneration plant. However, few works investigated the opportunity to carry on exergy analysis of a trigeneration system of an industry. Therefore, this paper can give a relevant contribution to this field. The case studies are two Italian industries that, given their physical proximity, want to be an energy community by sharing an internal combustion engine in a trigeneration arrangement. To evaluate the trigeneration systems proposed, exergy analysis was carried out using the Matlab tool. Results underlined that the trigeneration system developed is convenient from the exergy point of view.