A new waste heat district heating system with combined heat and power (CHP) based on ejector heat exchangers and absorption heat pumps

A new waste heat district heating system with CHP based on ejector heat exchangers and absorption heat pumps (DH-EHE) is presented to decrease heating energy consumption of existing CHP systems by recovering waste heat of exhausted steam from a steam turbine, which could also increase heat transmission capacity of the primary heating network (PHN) by decreasing temperature of the return water of existing PHN. A new ejector heat exchanger based on ejector refrigeration cycle is invented to decrease temperature of the return water of PHN to 30 °C under the designed case. DH-EHE is analyzed in terms of laws of thermodynamics and economics. Compared to conventional district heating systems with CHP (CDH), DH-EHE can decrease consumption of steam extracted from a steam turbine by 41.4% and increase heat transmission capacity of the existing PHN by 66.7% without changing the flow rate of circulating water. The heating cost of DH-EHE is 8.62 ¥/GJ less than that of CDH. Compared to CDH, the recovery period of additional investment of DH-EHE is about two years. DH-EHE shows better economic and environmental benefits, which is promising for both district heating systems for long-distance heat transmission and waste heat district heating systems.