4E Analysis of a novel combined cooling, heating and power system coupled with solar thermochemical process and energy storage

The traditional cogeneration system of cooling, heating and electricity still has problems such as high greenhouse gas emissions, high consumption of fossil fuels and low output of products. A novel combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) coupled with solar thermochemical (STC) process and energy storage unit is proposed in this paper. The system realizes the multi-energy supplementation of renewable energy and fossil energy, and actively regulates outputs through energy storage unit. This paper makes a comprehensive evaluation of the system from four perspectives of energy, exergy, exergoeconomics and environment (4 E). The results demonstrate that the total energy and exergy efficiencies of the new system reach up to 80.30% and 55.33%, respectively. The system product has an average specific cost of 0.122 $/kWh. The system's specific CO2 emission and fossil energy saving ratio are 286.21 g/kWh and 55.96%, respectively. The analysis of a typical day shows that the energy storage unit enables the system to respond the changes of the cooling, heating and power outputs in time to meet the user's load demand. The results show that the new system improves energy efficiency, reduces CO2 emission, saves methane, and realizes the active regulation of system energy input and output through energy storage component.