Optimal configuration of CCHP system based on energy, economical, and environmental considerations

The technical, economical and environmental performances of CCHP system are closely dependent on its design and operation modes. In this paper, the energy flow of CCHP system and separation production (SP) system are analyzed. Three criteria: primary energy consumption (PEC), the annual total cost and carbon dioxide emission (CDE) are selected to compare and evaluate the performance of CCHP system with SP system. To improve the integrative performance, an objective function which contains the capacity of power generation unit (PGU) as the decision variable is constructed. the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the objective function. Based on a modeled CCHP system of a hypothetical hotel, a numerical example is given to ascertain the feasibility and validity of the proposed method of optimal configuration.