172 - Coupling solar collectors and co-generation units in solar assisted

heating and cooling systems

A. Napolitano 1,2*, G. Franchini1, G. Nurzia2, W. Sparber2

1
University of Bergamo, Department of Industrial Engineering, Viale Marconi n. 5, 24044 Dalmine (BG), Italy
2
EURAC, Institute for Renewable Energy, Viale Druso, n. 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
*
Assunta Napolitano, assunta.napolitano@unibg.it
Abstract
The present work reports the main issues of coupling solar collectors and cogeneration units for
heating and cooling purposes which have been derived from the detailed analysis of a study
case. The work suggests a procedure for planning such systems so that solar collectors and a
cogenerator do not interfere in their respective operation. The procedure includes the selection
of a layout, the definition of a control strategy and the sizing of each component of such a plant.
The outputs of the procedure are used in TRNSYS dynamic simulations to assess the
performance of the planned plant.
Keywords: solar heating and cooling, co-generation, planning, simulation

1. Introduction
In Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) plants, solar collectors are typically assisted by auxiliary
technologies to match the entire user’s heat demand. Gas boilers are commonly employed as heat back
up systems, but further machines fit to the same use. Among the possible supplementary technologies,
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generators, also known as Cogeneration systems, offer some
advantages.
Many technologies are available for cogeneration but in this work only gas engine based CHP units are
considered in combination with solar collectors, both for heating and cooling purposes. The latter is
supposed to be achieved by means of an absorption chiller. When heat recovered from a CHP system
is used to power an absorption machine, this not only meets the cooling load, but also reduces the peak
electric demand caused by the cooling request [1]. Moreover, a balanced heat demand over the year,
due to the presence of an absorption chiller, improves cogeneration application project economics by
increasing its operating hours per year [2]. When CHP units are selected to assist solar collectors for
heating and cooling purposes, further advantages are added to the above mentioned ones. In fact, CHP
systems support solar collectors by providing a heat source which derives from thermal recovery.
Hence, such a back up results in a more efficient energy supply and fuel saving compared to
conventional systems (e.g. boilers), especially in cooling season as heat driven chillers require heat
amounts larger then the electric demand of conventional chillers.
Despite of these advantages, coupling solar collectors and a CHP unit (SHC-CHP systems) for heating
and cooling purposes present certain critical issues, as shown by the study case below reported. The
main issue is to fit to each other a typically unsteady heat source (the solar radiation) and a system
which needs steady working conditions (N.B. the primary function of an engine heat recovery

1
equipment is to cool the engine [1]), with the aim of meeting the heat demand, both in winter and
summer. As planning such systems can be rather complex, a research work is being carried out to
identify the main criteria for optimal designing and sizing. This work is based on dynamic simulations
on TRNSYS platform to test on one hand first selected layout and control strategy, on the other hand
the influence of various choices of sizes.

2. Experience: the EURAC study case

In Bolzano, the capital of the most northern Italian Province, three buildings are equipped with solar
collectors assisted by one Combined Heat and Power generator. For one of them, which is the seat of
EURAC, a large amount of information could be collected thanks to a monitoring system which has
worked since 2005.
The main features of the EURAC energy facility are reported in Table 1. Fig. 1. and Fig. 2 show the
plant layout respectively for winter and summer operation mode. A more detailed description of the
system can be found in [3].
Table 1.Main features of the SHC-CHP installation in EURAC, Bolzano
Solar Collectors – Gross Area 615 m²
Heat Production Facility 1 Cogeneration Unit 180 kWe/ 330 kWth
2 Condensing Boilers 350 KWth each
1Absorption chiller 300 kWc
Cold Production Facility
2 Compression chillers 315 kWc each
2 Solar tanks 5,000 l each
Storage tanks
1 Cold tank 5,000 l

Fig. 1.Layout of the SHC-CHP installation at EURAC, Bolzano : winter operation mode.

One critical aspect within this plant is the presence of a hydraulic junction where all the hot and cold
streams are mixed, in particular the ones of the cogenerator and the solar loop which often have
different temperatures, especially in winter. Besides increasing entropy generation, mixing flows at
different temperatures can decrease both collectors’ and cogenerator’s efficiency, in winter and in
summer as well. In fact, in winter solar fraction usually has a temperature lower than the one of

2
cogenerated heat. Hence, solar fraction can be stored and used for SDHW supply or mixed. If it is
mixed, collectors’ efficiency can be negatively affected by a too high mean temperature in the
hydraulic junction which is due, on one hand to the high temperature provided by the cogeneration, on
the other hand to the high temperature returning from the distribution system (high temperature
radiators are included). On the contrary, in summer, high temperatures are delivered by the solar loop,
increasing the main temperature in the hydraulic junction. In this case, when the absorption chiller
works at partial loads (i.e. the “V Abs” in Fig. 2. reduces the mass flow entering the generator of the
absorption chiller, thus the mass flow between the hydraulic junction and the valve is recirculated), the
engine cooling stream temperature risks to be too high. The cogenerator is put in alarm and it switches
on/off continuously, first because it is controlled by the electricity demand, secondly because it has no
heat storage. Furthermore, the nominal hot mass flow entering the generator of the absorption chiller is
higher than the sum of the nominal flows of the cogenerator and the solar loop, thus the boilers have to
be used if the absorption chiller has to be run at nominal conditions. Whenever not all of them work
and the cooling peak load is reached at the same time, colder flows from the bottom of the hydraulic
junction enter the absorption machine and the inlet temperature is decreased.

Fig. 2. Layout of the SHC-CHP installation at EURAC, Bolzano: summer operation mode.

3. Research approach
3.1. Goals
The just described experience demonstrates that a deep attention has to be paid in planning SHC-CHP
systems from three points of view: layout, control strategy and machine sizes. The present research
work proposes a first layout with a specific control strategy and a procedure for sizing such a plant
with the main goal to avoid issues like the above mentioned. The selected plant configuration is then
simulated in TRNSYS along one year to analyse the off-design behaviour of the single components,
their interaction and the performance of the overall system.

3.2. Major hypothesis

The selected layout and the sizing procedure have been applied supposing the EURAC building to be
the final user. In this regard, data derived from the installed monitoring system have been used. These
data correspond to the building heating and cooling demand monitored since November 2005 to

3
October 2006 (Fig. 3.). To simulate the power load, the temperatures of the stream being delivered to
the building and returning from it have been assumed constant, both in winter and in summer,
according to the selected distribution system (DS). Thus, the demanded power has been translated in a
“demanded mass flow” at constant temperature gaps. So, during the simulations, the “demanded mass
flow” at the assumed return temperature gets elaborated by the designed facility. Under the mentioned
hypothesis, checking that what is produced by the facility matches what is required by the building
means ensuring that the “demanded mass flow” gets distributed at the assumed delivery temperature.
800
600 Heating peak demand 680 kWth
kWth Heating degree hours 69147 °C
400 Cooling peak demand 330 kWc
200 Absorbed heat peak 490 kWth
Cooling degree hours 1994 °C
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
Hours

Fig. 3. Heat load duration curve with some detailed data derived from the monitoring system installed at
EURAC.

3.3 Layout selection

The following main components have been included in the plant scheme (Fig. 4.):
• vacuum tube (VT) collectors;
• one co-generation unit based on a reciprocating gas engine and controlled by the heat load;
• one absorption chiller.
The VT collectors and the cogeneration unit are connected in parallel. Biomass boilers have been
selected to assist the heat production with a renewable source. One compression chiller gets involved
whenever the absorption chiller does not match the entire cooling demand. Solar collectors are
exclusively connected to a storage tank. Thus, the solar fraction is only used when the tank reaches
selected temperature levels and heat is required at the same time, otherwise it is stored. Also the
cogeneration unit is served by a tank. However, in this case, the storage is employed to buffer the
variable load and to prevent that the engine frequently switches on/off. The selected DS consists of
radiant panels and fan coils, respectively for heating and cooling mode. It is connected to the heating
and cooling facility by means of a heat exchanger. Therefore, the medium flowing through the DS is
different from the one flowing through the facility. In this way, the variation of the heating and cooling
demand, i.e. the variation of the mass flow in the DS, is smoothed and the machines can operate under
more stable conditions.

3.4. Control strategy

Control strategy is fundamental in managing such a large and complex plant as it determines how the
single machines get involved in the operation of the overall system. For this purpose several PID and
on/off controllers have been included in the selected layout. The most significant of them are
committed to control the variable speed pumps (VP in Fig. 4.) which regulate the mass flow in each
component, except the cogenerator where a fixed mass flow is imposed. The goal is to supply heat and

4
cold energy flows at constant and unique selected values. E.g. a PID controller regulates the mass flow
in the primary solar loop in order to reach the winter/summer set temperatures (VP S1 in Fig. 4.), or
the hot mass flow entering the generator of the absorption chiller is regulated in order to provide
chilling water at the temperature requested by the users (VP H in Fig. 4.).
VP B

Biomass
Solar Boiler
Loop Solar
Storage Mix2
Tank Mix1 To/From DS
VP S2 Heating Mode
V1
VP S1
To/From DS
Cogenerator Cooling Mode
Heat VP H
Storage VP C
Tank Mix3
VP C2 Absorption

Chiller Div C
Div H Compression
Chiller

Fig. 4. Selected layout for the SHC-CHP plant.

Further important control devices are the diverters (Div H and Div C in Fig. 4.) which deliver the
flows to the single units according to the following hierarchies: solar tank, cogenerator tank and
biomass boiler on the hot side, absorption chiller and compression chiller on the cold side; it has to be
highlighted that the temperature of the hot storage tanks are checked by means of on/off controllers
before they get involved in the operation.

3.5. Components sizing

An excel sheet has been created including a methodology to size each machine, heat exchanger, tank
and pump of the selected layout. The outputs of this procedure are used for first simulations to assess
the performance of the overall system. Depending on the outcome of the simulations, the procedure is
repeated and followed by further simulations with the aim to find out the optimal sizes.
First, the sizing procedure requires the selection of the DS, as this choice fixes the hot and cold streams
temperatures to be provided by the facility. As already mentioned, radiant panels (40/30 °C) and fan
coils (8/13 °C) have been respectively selected for heating and cooling. Secondly, the heat and cold
power demand of a user building is needed. As previously said, the monitored heating and cooling
power demand of EURAC has been given as input to the sizing procedure. Then, the following main
steps are implemented:
• The summer heat demand is calculated on the basis of the cooling load rate that is wanted to be
supplied by an absorption chiller and of a typical COP of such machine;
• On the basis of the duration curve (Fig. 3.), the co-generator size is selected in order to ensure 3000
running hours per year at least;
• The biomass boiler size is obtained by the maximum requested heat power minus the heating
capacity of the cogenerator;

5
• The heat exchanger between the facility and the DS is sized depending on the needed heating and
cooling power and the desired logarithmic temperature differences, thus the maximum flow rate in the
overall facility is determined;
• The mass flows for all the machines are calculated on the basis of their capacities and the temperature
gaps they have to provide.
For determining the values to be assigned to some variables, such as the collectors surface and the
storage tanks capacity, no defined calculation procedure is applied as this selection can depend on
practical aspects, e.g. the maximum building surface which is exposed to the sun for the collectors or
the available volume space for the tanks.
The outcomes of the first application of the sizing procedure are used for the first simulations (Fig. 5.):
they only represent a starting point for the optimization process, especially for the solar collectors
surface, the storage tanks and the absorption chiller size.

5.60E+04 50
45
Solar Collectors 200 m² 4.80E+04 40
4.00E+04 6 35
1 Cogenerator 200 kWth 1 30 °C
kg/hr 3.20E+04 25
1 Biomass Boiler 480 KWth 2
2.40E+04 20
3 15
1.60E+04 4
1Absorption chiller 330 kWc 10
8.00E+03 5
5
0 Compression chiller 0 kWc 0.00E+00 0
862 870 878 886
1 Solar tanks 8,000 l Hours
1 Cogenerator tank 4,000 l 1.Flow to users 2.Flow in the entire facility
3.Flow from biomass boiler 4.Flow from cogenerator tank
5.Flow from solar tank 6.Temperature to users

Fig. 5. First selection of sizes and simulation of the heating flow demand and of the flows deriving from each
heat production system in a typical winter day.

3.6. Mathematical models for single components to be simulated

Most of the components to be simulated are already included in the TRNSYS standard library except
for the cogeneration unit and the biomass boiler. Hence, new mathematical models have been
appropriately written. These models include on one hand operating characteristic curves, on the other
hand internal control logics. The characteristic curves have been derived by the elaboration of
technical specifications acquired by various manufacturers and they refer to the following ranges of
sizes: [70; 500] kWe for gas engine based cogeneration units and [15; 1000] kWth for biomass boilers.
Both the created models implement the following steps:
• Once the nominal heat power has been determined according to the subchapter 3.5, the model
calculate left nominal features, e.g. the efficiency and the primary energy consumption at nominal
condition;
• Once the mass flow and the temperature of the fluid entering each machine are given as input and a
desired outlet temperature is selected, the models calculate the heat required for the stream to reach the
set temperature. According to the selected control logic (discrete or continuous modulation), the model
identifies the current load rate, the corresponding efficiency and primary energy consumption and the
fluid outlet state.
For instance, the algorithm of the cogeneration unit is shortly described.

6
The first input required by the algorithm is the nominal heat power (Qreq,nom). The corresponding
electrical power (Pnom) is determined by:

Pnom = 0.6148Qreq , nom + 0.9282 [kW] (1)

The nominal electrical, thermal and first law efficiencies (ηe,nom, ηth,nom and ηI,nom respectively) are
calculated according to:

ηe, nom = 0.0061Pnom + 31.284 [%] (2)

ηth , nom = −0.0133Pnom + 58.266 [%] (3)

η I , nom = −0.0071Pnom + 89.51 [%] (4)

The inlet mass flow and its temperature being known, the model calculates the heat required to heat up
the stream to a previously selected temperature. Then, the transferred heat Qcog in [kW] is identified
according to the internal control logic (heat load control and continuous modulation). The electrical
power Ppart which is related to Qcog can be calculated through the following equation:

Qcog Ppart
= 0.6685 + 0.3315 [%] (5)
Qreq , nom Pnom

Afterwards, the electrical efficiency ηe,part in [%] corresponding to Ppart is determined according to:
2
η e, part ⎛ Ppart ⎞
⎟ + 0.96⎛⎜ part ⎞
P
= −0.40⎜ ⎜ ⎟⎟ + 0.44 [%] (6)
η e , nom ⎜ Pnom ⎟ ⎝ Pnom ⎠
⎝ ⎠

For the absorption chiller simulation, the model presented in [4] is used. The characterization of the
chiller, in terms of distribution of the heat exchange area between the components and the typical
internal flows, is made referring to a commercial chiller. The maximum relative error calculated
comparing the model output to the manufacturer performance data does not exceed 10% and it is found
for off design conditions (cooling water inlet at 35 °C).

4. First results from TRNSYS simulations

Two decks have been created one for heating mode and one for cooling mode, but the entire year can
be simulated all at once. A 10 minutes time step has been selected to promote the convergence of some
components, in particular the controllers.
Not many simulations have been carried out up to now. However, some considerable results have
come out which already addresses on the way to an optimal planning. In fact, during the first
simulations the following aspects have emerged:
• the absorption chiller matches well the cooling peak demand but it often switches on/off at low loads
(Fig. 6.);
• the solar fraction is quite small: boilers are required to run the whole year;

7
• the tank serving the cogenerator is small: the engine switches on/off whenever low flows are
extracted from the top of the tank.
Please note: the on/off behaviour of the cogenerator and the absorption chiller is also due to the fact
that thermal inertia effects are not included in both the mathematical models.
5.60E+04 500
1 1.Flow to users
4.80E+04
400
4.00E+04 2.Cooling power
2 16 300
3.20E+04 3.Temperature
kg/hr 12 kWc
2.40E+04 °C 200 to users
3
1.60E+04 8
4 100
8.00E+03
0.00E+00 0 0
4180 4184 4188 4192 4196 4200
Hours

Fig. 6. Simulation of the cooling flow demand and the absorption chiller in a typical summer day.

5. Conclusions
SHC-CHP systems seem an interesting project solution but their planning requires a huge effort mainly
due to the different behaviour of the solar collectors and cogeneration units. The procedure suggested
in this paper is finalised to support the design of such plants in order that the mentioned components
do not interfere in their respective operation. This procedure can be applied to whatever kind of
building, its demand being known. Once the layout and the control strategy are fixed, the simulations
address to the optimal solution in terms of size. The energy consumption corresponding to the final
solution will then make clear whether and in which case this sort of project is energetically and
economically convenient.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to gratefully thank the STIFTUNG SÜDTIROLER SPARKASSE for the financial
support.

References
[1] Dorgan, C.B., Leight, S.P., Dorgan, C.E., 1995. Application Guide for Absorption Cooling/Refrigeration
Using Recovered Heat. USA: ASHRAE.
[2] Petchers, N., edited by, 2003. Combined Heating, Cooling & Power Handbook: Technologies & Applications.
Lilburn, GA: Fairmont Press.
[3] Troi, A., Filippi, H., Sparber, W., 2005. Practical Experience with Solar-Assisted Cooling in an Office and
Educational Building in South Tyrol / Northern Italy. In: Otti, ed., 2005. 1st International Conference on Solar
Air Conditioning. Germany, October 2005.
[4] Nurzia, G., 2008. “Design and simulation of solar absorption cooling systems”. PhD Thesis in Energy and
Environmental Technologies, Department of Industrial Engineering, Bergamo University.