A distributed energy system with advanced utilization of internal combustion engine waste heat

New trigeneration system consists of an internal combustion engine, a power and cooling cogeneration system and an absorption heat transformer system. The exhaust gas is recovered by the power and cooling cogeneration subsystem producing the cooling and power. The jacket water is recovered by the absorption heat transformer subsystem producing lowpressure steam. The exergy performance and the energy saving performance which is evaluated by the primary energy saving ratio of the new distributed energy system are analyzed. The effects of the ratio of the output power and cooling of the power and cooling cogeneration subsystem and the generator outlet temperature of the absorption heat transformer subsystem to the primary energy saving ratio are considered. The contributions of the subsystems to the primary energy saving ratio are quantified. The maximum primary energy saving ratio of the new distributed energy system is 15.8%, which is 3.9 percentage points higher than that of the conventional distributed energy system due to the cascade utilization of the waste heat from the internal combustion engine.