Energy 166 (2019) 715e723

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Energy and exergy analyses of a biogas driven multigenerational

system
Eren Sevinchan*, Ibrahim Dincer, Haoxiang Lang
Clean Energy Research Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North,
Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7K4, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, energy and exergy analyses of a biogas driven multigeneration system is conducted for
Received 18 April 2018 performance assessment and evaluation. In this regard, the multigeneration system with a biomass
Received in revised form digestion process is developed for this purpose. Multigeneration system consists of different subsystems,
28 September 2018
such as two-stage biomass digester, open-type Brayton cycle, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), single-effect
Accepted 15 October 2018
Available online 16 October 2018
absorption chiller, heat recovery, water separation unit. This multigeneration system aims to generate
electrical power for at least 300 houses, heating power for five greenhouses, cooling power and product
water from flue gas for agricultural consumption in greenhouses. The results indicate that the overall
Keywords:
Biogas
energy efficiencies of the proposed system is 72.5% with 1078 kW electrical, 198 kW heating, and
Multigeneration 87.54 kW cooling power, and daily around 40 kg water production. However, the maximum exergy ef-
Organic Rankine Cycle ficiency of the multigeneration system is obtained as 30.44%, with 65% of the highest exergy destruction
Energy rate in combustion chamber.
Exergy Crown Copyright © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Efficiency

1. Introduction
The energy demand of the world population increases dramat-
ically due to fast-developing technology in recent years. There is no
doubt that the impact of these constantly increasing technological
developments on our planet is more than ever before. Therefore,
clean and effective production of energy has a significant role to
supply energy demand of the world by more environmentally
friendly methods. Thus, energy production methods, fuels types
and clean fuel production processes are important and need to be
further investigated. In this case, energy production from biogas is
emerged because of its multi-directional consumption. As a
renewable energy source, biogas can be produced from various
resources, such as animal, agricultural and organic wastes. Mean-
while, digestate that is a product of biogas digestion process is
enabled to be used as fertilizer in agriculture. Furthermore, the
impact of the biogas on the environment is less than any other fossil
fuels, which makes biogas one of the cleanest and most effective
energy sources. In conjunction with this, the distribution of
renewable energy sources for power generation are presented in
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: eren.sevinchan@uoit.net (E. Sevinchan).
Fig. 1.
Biogas is a gas mixture, which consists of various contents of
methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen sulfide, water
vapor, ammonia and low concentration of hydrocarbons, based on
chemical properties of biomass source and biogas production
method. Out of methane, other gasses are considered as biogas
pollutant, which is not wanted in the chemical content of biogas.
When CO2 and N2 contents increase, the lower heating value (LHV)
of biogas, which has the highly significant effect on energy and
exergy efficiencies of the system, decreases corresponding to biogas
pollutant content of biogas. Because of this reason, some biogas
upgrading methods are developed in the literature to remove
biogas pollutant content of the gas, which increases LHV of the fuel.
Fig. 2 demonstrates biogas-upgrading methods where chemical
scrubber, membrane, and water scrubber methods have the highest
percentage, respectively.
There are some advantages of biogas consumption, which make
it able to be used in many different application areas. Biogas is a gas
that can be produced when it is required and easily to be stored [1].
On the other hand, it can be easily consumed as a fuel for cooking
and transportation [2]. Biogas and bio-methane consumption in
transportation can decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 60e80%
in comparison to gasoline [3]. However, biogas consumption may
decrease nitrogen oxide emissions as well [4]. Depending on this

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.10.085
0360-5442/Crown Copyright © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
716 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723
Fig. 1. Distribution of renewable energy sources for power generation in years (data
from Ref. [1]).
Fig. 2. Distribution of current technologies for biogas up grading methods (data from
Ref. [15]).
high environmentally efficient feature of the biogas, it is expected
to increase its consumption in energy generation. In addition, the
major part of the energy generation has been suggested to be
supplied biogas sources by European Union for the year of 2020.
However, 25% of the biogas production can be produced by wet
organic materials [5]. Furthermore, in the agricultural sector of
European Union, 1500 million tons of biomasses can be digested in
anaerobic digesters in a year [6].
Multigeneration energy systems are systems that have more
than three useful outputs. These outputs may vary, but they are
usually electricity, heating, cooling and another useful output, such
as hydrogen, water, ammonia etc. Multigeneration is the most
effective system, which takes advantage of waste heat as a heat
source for other applications in the system. The applications that
utilize waste heat to operate may be district heating, absorption
cooling systems or another energy system that produces electrical
power, such as Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). Energy and exergy
efficiency of these systems significantly depend on how waste heat
is effectively used. In this case, there is no doubt that the energy
efficiency of a multigeneration system is expected to be higher than
other energy systems, such as co-tri-generation systems. Therefore,
effective consumption of waste heat is a significant parameter,
which determines the efficiency of the system.
In the literature, there are a lot of different co-tri and multi-
generation power plants, which use biogas as main fuel [7e9].
Gazda et al. [10] developed a biogas-fired trigeneration system,
where electricity, cooling and heating generation are supported by
a photovoltaic system (PV). According to their results, the energy
efficiency increases between almost 37% and 43% based on load
ratio from 50% to 100%. Meanwhile, the decrease of greenhouse
gasses and energy savings in average are found as 67.37% and
54.50% respectively [10]. Huicochea et al. [11] have studied a tri-
generation system that has a 28 kW micro turbine and a double-
effect absorption chiller to supply cooling power for the system.
Bruno et al. [12] have studied another biogas driven trigeneration
energy system, which consists of a micro gas turbine (MGT) and
absorption cooling system with 24.92% net electrical efficiency.
Cacua et al. [13] analyzed a trigeneration system that is driven by
diesel-biogas dual fuel, where waste heat is consumed for heating
air and absorption unit freezer. According to their results, overall
energy efficiency of the system is 40% with diesel fuel and 31% with
dual fuel. Although biogas is widely used in many energy systems
as fuel, biomass is also another option to generate electricity.
Ahmadi et al. [14] designed and analyzed biomass-driven multi-
generation energy system, where they obtained overall exergy ef-
ficiency of the system is 22.20% with the electricity generation of
671 kW.
Although biogas can be used as main fuel of an energy genera-
tion system, it also can be used in hybrid systems. A hybrid energy
system, which consists of biogas, is studied by Su et al. [16] to
improve energy performance of a trigeneration system by using
additional solar energy system. According to their results, energy
efficiency of the system varies between almost 38.5% and 48%
corresponding to different power load of the system, where the
maximum 1600.2 kW cooling energy production takes place.
However, Coskun et al. [17] are analyzed hydrogen production from
biogas based electricity, where they achieved to obtain energy ef-
ficiency of the overall system between 7.86% and 86.90% depending
on three different types of electrolysers. Furthermore, biomass also
can be used directly as an energy source in an energy system.
The current studies mostly focus on energy analysis of biogas
driven co-trigeneration energy systems. However, there is a gap in
terms of design and analysis of a biogas energy system with all
aspects, such as exergy analysis of biogas production, the envi-
ronmental impact of the system for the same system. The objective
of this study is to design a biogas driven multigeneration energy
system and analyse this system from the energetic, exergetic and
environmental point of views. This biogas driven multigeneration
energy system produces biogas from chicken manure and maize
silage, and generates electricity, heating and cooling power. In
addition to these three outputs, the water content of the flue gas of
the system passes through a water separator to provide water for
agricultural usage. Energy and exergy analyses and environmental
impact assessment of the system will be examined in detail for each
component of the system in this study.
2. System description
In this study, biogas driven multigeneration system consists of
various subsystems, such as a two-stage biomass digester, Brayton
Cycle, single-effect absorption chiller, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC),
greenhouse heating and water separation of flue gas. As a biomass
input of the biogas production subsystem, the mixture of chicken
manure and maize silage has been considered, with 70000 kg and
30000 kg daily biomass input respectively. Since biomasses have
various chemical contents depending on biomass type, individual
consideration of these two biomasses is a significant point for en-
ergy and exergy analyses of biogas production process. Table 1
shows chemical composition of chicken manure, maize silage,
and digestate, which is the product of biogas production process.
Fig. 3 illustrates the layout of the designed system, where two-
Table 1
Chemical composition of substrates and digestate.
Definition Poultry litter [18] Maize Silage [19] Digestate [19]
C [wt%kg d.b.] 37.50 33.71 35.34
H [wt%kg d.b.] 5.5 4.47 4.53
N [wt%kg d.b.] 4.7 11.16 5.35
O [wt%kg d.b.] 29.4 16.86 24.36
A [wt%kg d.b.] 21 33.80 30.38
 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723 717

stage biogas production is preferred to enhance the quality of the
produced biogas in the system. As a feature of two-stage biomass
digestion systems, the first three steps of biogas production, which
are hydrolysis, acidogenesis and acetogenesis, take place in the first
digester; while the last step, methanogenesis, occurs in the second
digester.
After biomass digestion, biogas passes through a gas pre-heater
to improve combustion quality in the combustion chamber. The
heated biogas comes to combustion chamber to be mixed with
amount of compressed air, which depends on air-fuel ratio of
biogas. After the combustion process, exhaust air operates a turbine
to demand primary electricity generation of the system. Biomass
digester units are heated by the exhausted gas after the turbine
process to keep them around 35
C. Single effect absorption chiller
takes place after biomass digester heating process. Exhausted air
passes through generator of the absorption chiller to supply suffi-
cient energy input to produce cooling power. After that, ORC is
operated with exhaust air to generate secondary electrical power
generation of the system, which is lower than the electricity pro-
duction in Brayton Cycle. After the condenser of ORC, superheated
n-octane, which is the working fluid of the ORC, is used for gas pre-
heater process of the biogas. Greenhouse heating process takes
place after ORC to supply heating power for five greenhouses to
keep their temperature around 29
C. As a final process, the vapor
water content of the exhaust air has been taken by a water sepa-
rator to produce as high as possible amount of water for agricultural
usage.
System has been developed to supply electrical energy demand
of at least 300 houses, heating power for 5 greenhouses, and pro-
vide cooling power and produce water for agricultural purposes.

Agricultural
Manure Tank
1 Waste Tank
Process Line
2 3 Digester 4 Biogas Line
Mixer Digester with Gas
Water Line
Holder

32 31
Generator
Electrical
Digestate 33 34 Power
Storage Tank Gas pre-heater
30
Combustion
Chamber 35 36
5
29 Greenhouse
7

8 37
Generator
Turbine Compressor
38
Electrical Water Separator
Power
39

9 6
10
Heat Recovery
11
12

14 13
Condenser Generator
15

25 26
16 Solution Heat
Exchanger
Refrigerant Expansion 27
24
Valve Solution Solution Expansion Valve
Pump

17 23 28
21
Evaporator 20
22
18 19 Absorber

Fig. 3. The layout of biogas driven multigeneration system.

718 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723

According to Statistic Canada [20], average of annual energy con-

sumption per house is estimated as 105 GJ. The required electrical W_ e;B ¼ h W _ T;B  W_ comp
gen
energy for 300 houses can be found as
where gen, TB, and comp indicate the generator, turbine of the
105GJ Brayton Cycle and compressor, respectively.
RE ¼  300 houses ¼ 3:59 GJ=day (1)
365 days  24 hours On the other hand, the net electricity generation in the ORC
subsystem is defined as
The required total electrical energy need of 300 houses is esti-
mated as above, which is 3.59 GJ per day. _ _ _
W e;ORC ¼ hgen W T;ORC  W pump

The net electrical energy efficiency of the system is defined as

3. Energy and exergy analyses
below and verified in multigeneration, trigeneration, cogeneration
heating and cooling applications.
There are several assumptions in energy and exergy analyses of
the multigeneration system, which are shown in Table 2 with some _
W
input data of the system. First of all, system is assumed to operate at hen;el ¼ _ net (3)
steady state conditions. In addition, pressure change in the system Q in
is neglected except for changes in pumps, valves, and turbines.
Furthermore, combustion in the combustion chamber is studied as where Q_ in indicates total heat input rate of the system, while
complete combustion with 80% thermal efficiency. In addition, the subscript en, el is electrical energy efficiency.
model for single-effect absorption chiller is validated with the data
from Dincer et al. [21]. Q_ in ¼ m_ bio  LHV (4)

where m_ bio is mass flow rate of the biogas and LHV defines lower
3.1. Energy analysis heating value, which is 17.52 MJ. Cogeneration energy efficiency of
heating is defined as
Energy analysis is conducted for cogeneration heating, cogene-
ration cooling, trigeneration and multigeneration systems. The net W_ net þ Q_
hen;coh ¼ h
(5)
power of the cogeneration heating, cogeneration cooling, and tri- Q_ in
generation systems is defined as

_ net ¼ W_ e;B þ W_ _ _ where en, coh is heating cogeneration energy efficiency, Q_ h is heat
W e;ORC  W comp  W pumps (2) power that produced for greenhouse heating process, which is
defined as
where W _ is the power and the subscripts eB, eORC, comp, pumps,
ws indicate electricity generation of Brayton Cycle, electricity Q_ h ¼ m_ 26 h26  m_ 27 h27 (6)
generation of ORC, compressor, pumps and water separator,
respectively. On the other hand, cogeneration energy efficiency for cooling is
The net electrical power generation of the Brayton cycle is estimated as
defined as
W_ net þ Q_ c
hen;coc ¼ (7)
Q_ in
Table 2
Input data of multigeneration system.
where en, coc is cooling cogeneration energy efficiency, Q_ c is
Brayton Cycle
cooling power that produced by the system, which is defined as
Mass flow rate (kg/s) 3.256
Generator efficiency (%) 90 Q_ c ¼ m_ 13 h13  m_ 12 h12 (8)
Compression ratio 3
Turbine inlet pressure (kPa) 304 Trigeneration energy efficiency is also defined as Equation (9),
Combustion Chamber efficiency (%) 80
where heating, cooling and electricity generation are products of
Organic Rankine Cycle
Mass flow rate (kg/s) 3 the system.
ORC pump efficiency (%) 80
ORC turbine efficiency (%) 80 W_ net þ Q_ þ Q_
hen;tri ¼ h c
(9)
Q_
ORC generator efficiency (%) 90
Single-effect Absorption Chiller in
habs (kW/K) 75
Net power output of multigeneration is defined as W_ net;m , which
hcon (kW/K) 80
hgen (kW/K) 70 can be found by Equation (10).
heva (kW/K) 95
_ net;m ¼ W_ e;B þ W_ _ _ _
e;ORC  W comp  W pumps  W ws
Two-Stages Digester W (10)
Temperature of the first digester (
C) 38
Temperature of the second digester (
C) 35 Finally, multigeneration energy efficiency is indicated as Equa-
Heating load (kW) 66
tion (11), where electricity generation, heating, cooling and water
Gas yield (Nm3/kgdb) 0.73
Greenhouse production are products of the system.
Length (m) 20
Height (m) 5 W_ net;m þ Q_ þ Q_ c
hen;multi ¼ h
(11)
Q_
Width (m) 10
Temperature (
C) 30 in
Number of greenhouses 5
 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723 719

3.2. Exergy analysis Finally, the exergy efficiency of multigeneration system is

defined as
The total exergy rates for each component in the system are




calculated by following equation: W_ net;m þ 1  T0 Q_ þ 1  T0 Q_
Thp h Tev c
hex;multi ¼ (21)
extotal ¼ exPH þ exCH (12) Q_ f

In addition, exergy analysis of biomass digestion process is also

where exPH is physical exergy rate per mass flow, which is defined studied at steady state conditions. For the chemical exergy analysis
as of two-stages biomass digester, chemical exergy rates of organic
substances, which are biomass and digestate, during the process
V 2  V02
exPH ¼ exi ¼ hi  hO  TO ðsi  sO Þ þ þ gðz  z0 Þ are analyzed by equation of Song et al. [23].
2
(13) exOM ¼ 362:0083C þ 1101:841H  86:218O þ 2:418N
Here, s, V, z, and g indicate enthalpy, entropy, velocity, elevation þ 196:701S  21:1A (22)
and gravity, respectively, while j shows state point number, and
0 determines property of surrounding environment. However, exCH where C, H, O, N, S and A determine organic content of the sub-
determines chemical exergy rate per mass flow, and it can be found stances, which are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and
by Equation (14) [22]. ash, respectively. This equation is applied for biomass input,
biomass substances between two stages, and digestate. However,

 
exCH ¼ Mj xj exCH as a gas content of biogas, chemical exergy rate should be defined
j j þ RT0 xj ln xj (14)
for both first and second digester, depending on their products of
chemical reactions. The chemical exergy of a gas mixture is defined
where Mj and exCH j are molecular weight and standard chemical as
exergy value for each state points, respectively. On the other hand, X X
R and x determine universal gas constant and molar concentration. exch ¼ xk exkch þ RT0 xk lnðxk Þ (23)
Furthermore, exergy destruction is another significant value, which
indicates the potential work lost due to irreversibility. Exergy
destruction for each state point is defined as
! 4. Results and discussion
X T0 _ X X
_ ¼
Ex 1 Qj  W_ þ m_ i exi  m_ e exe (15)
d
j
Tj i e The performance of the system is analyzed in five different
cases, such as single electricity generation system, cogeneration-
where T and Ex _ show temperature and exergy destruction rate, heating system, cogeneration-cooling system, trigeneration and
d
respectively. Finally, electrical exergy efficiency of the system can multigeneration systems through different parameters for both
be defined as net power output of the system over chemical exergy energetically and exergetically. These parameters are daily biomass
of the fuel as Equation (16). input of the system, ambient temperature, and compression ratio.
During the thermodynamic analyses, the input data of the system
W_ net are kept constant at the values that are tabulated in Tables 1 and 2
hex;el ¼ (16) On the other hand, Table 3 gives the multigeneration system
Q_ f outputs.
The greenhouse heating takes place between state points 37 and
where Q_ f is chemical exergy efficiency of the fuel, which is defined 38, which requires 198 kW heating power for five greenhouses in
as ambient temperature of 25
C. The net electrical power output is
estimated 1078 kW, which is enough to supply electricity to 326
Q_ f ¼ n_ bio LHV (17) houses [20]. However, coefficient of performance value of single-
effect absorption chiller is defined as 0.68. Thermodynamic prop-
The cogeneration heating exergy efficiency is defined as Equa-
erties of each state points are listed in Table 4, where it can be seen
tion (18), where electrical and heating power are outputs of the
that the temperature.
system.



W_ net þ 1  T0 Q_ 4.1. Effect of daily amount of biomass input
Thp h
hex;coh ¼ (18)
Q_ f The daily biomass input of the multigeneration system is
The cogeneration cooling exergy efficiency is defined as assumed 70000 kg chicken manure and 30000 kg maize silage,
which makes 100000 kg biomass input in total. There is no doubt



Q_ c
_ net þ 1  T0 that daily amount of biomass input to the biomass digesters has one
W Teva
hex;coc ¼ (19)
Q_ f
Table 3
The trigeneration exergy efficiency, which generate electricity, Output data of the system.
heating and cooling power. Definition Output




 Net electrical power output (kW) 1078
W_ net þ 1  TThp0 Q_ h þ 1  TTeva
0
Q_ c Heating power (kW) 198
hex;tri ¼ (20) COP 0.68
Q_ f Water Production (kg/day) 39.55
720 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723

Table 4 of houses that can provide from the generated electrical energy in
Thermodynamic properties of each state points. the system is studied corresponding to the net power output of the
State Point (kJ⁄kg) (kg⁄s) P (kPa) T (K) (kJ/kg) multigeneration system. As it is discussed before, daily electrical
4 10.85 0.1896 101.3 304.5 1722
energy need of a house is estimated as 105 GJ in Canada, according
5 21.11 0.1896 303.9 313 1722 to Statistic Canada [20]. Therefore, the ratio of electrical power
6 298.2 3.067 101.3 298 0 output and daily energy need of a house provides the number of the
7 338 3.067 304 337.8 96.39 houses that can access sufficient amount of daily electrical power
8 1168 3.256 304 1106 573.2
from the system, which increases from 300 to 420 houses.
9 895.4 3.256 101.3 866.1 266
10 2644 0.57 37 353 2194
11 104.2 0.57 37 298 0.59 4.2. Effect of ambient temperature
12 875.2 3.256 101.3 847.8 252.8
13 2618 0.037 5.4 336.5 78.27
The ambient temperature is another parameter that effects
14 104.2 0.55 37 298 0.49
15 263.1 0.55 37 336 253.1
performance of the system both energetically and exergetically.
16 144 0.037 5.4 307.5 0.508 When the ambient temperature increases between 288 K and
17 144 0.037 0.87 278.2 6 303 K, ambient air enters the compressor with a high temperature
18 104.2 1.056 37 298 0.49 and enthalpy, which also affects the turbine inlet temperature.
19 21.1 1.056 37 278.16 85.95
Depending on this temperature change in the system, net electrical
20 2510 0.037 0.87 278.2 176
21 104.2 0.94 37 298 0.49 power energy of the system slightly increases from 1048 kW to
22 263.1 0.94 37 336 2531 1093 kW. The change of the net electrical power output is not a
23 67.3 0.117 0.87 303.4 11.1 significant difference for the system; however, it has a significant
24 67.3 0.117 5.4 303.4 11.1 impact on heating power output. In the multigeneration system,
25 128.3 0.117 5.4 332.2 71.81
26 244.5 0.1 5.4 365 117.3
heating output of the system is used for space heating of five
27 168.5 0.1 5.4 321.9 41.64 greenhouses. Since greenhouses should be kept at a specific tem-
28 168.5 0.1 0.87 329 41.6 perature depending on the best temperature for plants in the
29 835.9 3.256 101.3 812.3 227.7 greenhouse, heating power output of the multigeneration system
30 708.4 3 2000 549 209.5
decreases when the ambient temperature reaches greenhouse
31 623.6 3 37.5 432.3 112
32 104.2 4.55 37 298 0.49 temperature, which is around 29
C. Therefore, heating power
33 2688 4.55 37 365 2214 output of the multigeneration system declines from 455 kW to
34 198.8 3 37.5 365 20.32 69.46 kW, while ambient temperature varies between 288 K and
35 157.5 3 37.5 365 15.65 303 K.
36 161.3 3 2000 365.9 18.84
37 432.7 3.256 101.3 431 23.32
From energy efficiency point of view, it can be seen that the
38 368.8 3.256 101.3 368 7.185 energy efficiency of cooling cogeneration system and the system
39 374 3.256 101.3 373.1 8.207 with only electrical power generation increases from 41.63% to
43.27% and from 38.47% to 40.11%, respectively. The effect of the
cooling load and the decrease of the heating power output are main
of the biggest impact on the performance of the system. The in- reasons for this energy efficiency variation corresponding to
crease of the biomass input causes more production of daily biogas. change in ambient temperature. When the amount of required heat
Depending on this change in biogas flow rate, mass flow rate of that produced by the system for heating applications decrease, the
system increases as well because of air-fuel ratio of the biogas, as energy efficiency of the system decrease too, which means less
long as mass flow rate of the system is not fixed to a specific energy output from the system and less energy efficiency. This
number or not stored for a further consumption. situation can be clearly seen for energy efficiencies of heating
According to Fig. 4, it is clear to see that increase of the daily cogeneration, trigeneration, and multigeneration.
biomass input goes up from 100000 kg to 150000 kg, while net The variation of the ambient temperature has also an impact on
electrical power output of the system increases between 1000 kW exergy efficiency of the system. Fig. 5 indicates that exergy effi-
and 1394 kW. On the left side of the graph, increase of the number ciency of the system slightly increases around 1% for all systems
depending on their useful products, such as heating-cooling
cogeneration, trigeneration and multigeneration. However, the ef-
fect of the change in ambient temperature on exergy efficiencies
comes from the definition of the exergy rate of the heating and
cooling power outputs. As it is showed in Equation (17), exergy rate
of heat power has linear relation with the ratio of ambient and
surface temperature. When ambient temperature increases, exergy
rate of heating and cooling power outputs of the system increases
too, which is a reason of 1% increment in exergy efficiency of
cooling-heating cogeneration, trigeneration and multigeneration
systems.

4.3. Effect of compression ratio

The compression ratio, which is denoted as rp, is a ratio of the

Fig. 4. Effect of daily amount of biomass input on net power output and corresponding
number of houses.
absolute stage discharge and suction pressure. The compression
ratio of the compressor is defined as 3 at the beginning of the
analysis, and then it increased from 3 to 8 to see the effect of the
ratio on performance of the system. Thus, the net electrical power
output of the system increases from 1078 kW to 1704 kW
 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723
Fig. 5. Effect of ambient temperature on energy and exergy efficiencies, net electrical
power and heating power output.
Fig. 6. Effect of compression ratio on energy efficiency and net electrical power output.
depending on the compression ratio in Fig. 6.
On the other hand, energy efficiency of the system increases to
because of this change in net electrical power output of the system.
Since trigeneration and multigeneration systems have more useful
outputs than other systems, their ratio of useful output and the
heat input of the system is higher than cogeneration. Therefore,
their energy efficiency are higher than other three system types. It
can be seen that the energy efficiency of the trigeneration system is
higher than multigeneration system because of the additional work
input of the multigeneration system. Multigeneration system has
more useful outputs than other systems but its required energy is
higher than others, which keeps its energy efficiency lower than
other systems. However, the maximum energy efficiency, which is
69.34%, can be seen for trigeneration system when the compression
ratio is 8, while the system with only electricity generation has the
lowest energy efficiency, 39.56%, with compression ratio of 3.
From exergy efficiency point of view, Fig. 7 shows the variation
of exergy efficiencies corresponding to change in compression ra-
tio. There is no doubt that exergy efficiency of the system increases
because of the increase of the compression ratio from 3 to 8.
Depending on the compression ratio, pressure and temperature of
compressed air varies. High compression ratio means the inlet air
with higher temperature and pressure, which increases the per-
formance of the system. This situation can be clearly seen in Fig. 7,
721
Fig. 7. Effect of compression ratio on exergy efficiency and net electrical power output.
where the exergy efficiency and the net electrical power output of
the system increase. As it is discussed before, the exergy efficiency
of the trigeneration is higher than the multigeneration system
because of the additional electrical work input of the water sepa-
rator. The exergy efficiency of the multigeneration system increases
between 30.44% and 48.23%, while total electrical energy that
generated by the multigeneration system varies from 1078 kW to
1704 kW.
4.4. Effect of mass flow rate of the system
The mass flow rate of the system can be defined based on biogas
production of the system, since biogas has an air-fuel ratio that
determines the mass flow rate. In this analysis, the mass flow rate of
the biogas is changed to see the change in mass flow rate of the
system and its effects on cogeneration heating, cogeneration
cooling, electricity generation, trigeneration and multigeneration
efficiencies. According to results, the mass flow rate of the biogas
increases from 0.18 kg/s to 2.1 kg/s, which causes to increase of the
mass flow rate of the system between 3.86 kg/s and 5.78 kg/s. Fig. 8
indicates that energy efficiency of the multigeneration system de-
creases from 50.03% to 48.89%, because of the decrease of the net
power output of the system, which changes between 1099 kW and
1068 kW.
On the other hand, energy efficiency of the trigeneration
concept of the same system again decreases from 50.65% to 49.51%.
Fig. 8. Effect of mass flow rate of the system on energy efficiencies and net power
output.
722 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723

system increases corresponding to this change in mass flow rate.

The energy efficiency of the multigeneration system increases from
50.03% to 54.13%, while the exergy efficiency of the system changes
between 30.09% and 31.13%.
In addition, Fig. 10 shows the exergy destruction rates of
different components in the system, which ones have high rate. In
this case, the exergy destruction of the combustion chamber is the
highest rate with 1137 kW, while first biomass digester has an
exergy destruction rate of 243.6 kW. All the components that have
been showed in Fig. 10 are components that have such processes
which require a huge amount of heat input or output with large
amount of losses.

5. Conclusions

Energy and exergy analyses of a biogas-driven multigeneration

Fig. 9. Effect of the mass flow rate of the single-effect absorption chiller on COP, en-
system are conducted in this study. Performance of the system is
ergy and exergy efficiencies of the multigeneration system.
studied under variation of different parameters, such as ambient
temperature, daily biomass input and compression ratio, from both
It can be seen that the variation of the energy efficiency is not a energy and exergy point of views. The main concluding points of
huge change in the system. To illustrate that, even cogeneration this study are listed as
cooling and heating concepts have only around 1% difference cor-
responding to mass flow rate change of the system. Furthermore,  Multigeneration system is enable to produce 1078 kW electrical,
the lowest energy efficiency can be seen in the system that has only 198 kW heating, 87.54 kW cooling power, and daily almost 40 kg
electricity generation, which goes down from 40.33% to 39.19%. water for greenhouses at 25
C temperature and 101.34 kPa
pressure.
 There is no doubt that the energy and exergy efficiencies of the
4.5. Effect of the mass flow rate of the single-effect absorption
system increase when the system generates more useful out-
chiller
puts. It can be seen in the parametric analyses, energy and
exergy efficiencies of the multigeneration system are always
The effect of the mass flow rate of the single-effect absorption
higher than other cogeneration and single generation figura-
chiller on coefficient of performance (COP) of the chiller, energy and
tions of the system, which are 72.5% and 30.44% for multi-
exergy efficiencies of the multigeneration system are analyzed in
generation system, respectively.
Fig. 9. The mass flow rate of the solution is varied, and the mass
 The maximum electrical power energy efficiency is 40.11%,
flow rate of the working fluid of the chiller is changed. The mass
maximum cooling energy efficiency is 62.18%, and maximum
flow rate of the working fluid has a significant role on performance
heating energy efficiency is 65.35%.
of the single-effect absorption chiller. Since it affects the amount of
 The generated electrical energy in the system is sufficient to
heat that can be absorbed from the cooled space, investigation of
supply electricity for almost 300 houses daily, according to the
the mass flow rate is a good way to see the effect of the mass flow
statistics. In this case, storage of the additional electricity gen-
rate of the chiller in overall system. The COP value of the multi-
eration would be a solution for more efficient consuming of the
generation system is found 0.68 in the assumed ambient conditions
electricity. Furthermore, depending on the daily biomass input
of the multigeneration system. However, it varies from 0.68 to 0.79
of the system, the amount of biogas that produced additional
depending on the change of the mass flow rate of the cooling
would be stored for further usage.
system. This COP change indicates that the cooling power of the
 The combustion chamber of the Brayton Cycle has the highest
system increases by the upward change in mass flow rate of the
exergy destruction rate with 65%. The other components with
single effect absorption chiller. Furthermore, this situation has an
high exergy destruction rate are evaporator of the ORC and
effect on energy and exergy efficiencies of the multigeneration
biomass digesters, with 9.2% and 14.3% exergy destruction rates,
system. Since the cooling power of the system increases by the
respectively.
change in mass flow rate of the working fluid of the cooling system,
the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the multigeneration
Nomenclature

ex Exergy per unit mass, kJ/kg

_
Ex Exergy rate, kW
g Gravity, m/s2
h Enthalpy per unit mass, kJ/kg
LHV Lower heating value, kJ/kg
m_ Mass flow rate, kg/s
M Molecular weight, kg/mol
MGT Micro gas turbine
n_ Molar flow rate, mol/s
ORC Organic Rankine Cycle
P Pressure, kPa
Q_ Heat rate, W
Fig. 10. Exergy destruction of different components in the system. R Universal gas constant, J/mol.K
 E. Sevinchan et al. / Energy 166 (2019) 715e723 723

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