**1. Introduction**

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), solar power will be the fastest-growing source of energy in the future. The growth rate of solar energy can reach more than 12% [1]. Many countries today are making decisions to put political strategies in the use of renewable resources. For that, many studies were done all over the world, Asia [2, 3], Africa [4, 5], and America [6], whose objectives are to determine the energy potential and to choose the political strategies to improve the solar energy potential. In Europe [1], the Commission communication to the European Parliament and the Council for new European energy policies set out in

2014 [7] a target to reach 20% energy efficiency by 2020 and 30% by 2030. In fact, researches are looking for technologies that can be used to mitigate global warming around the world and reduce CO2 emissions [8]. Energy shortage problems are faced in all over the world and becoming more acute in all fields [9, 10] (metallurgy, chemical, electrical and mechanical sectors). So, the world is facing two energy challenges: increase production to meet energy needs and reduce CO2 emissions issued by industrial plants. For that, the utilization of renewable energy becomes a political duty and not a strategic choice to solve energy problems. Among these renewable resources used is the solar energy: Sunil Kumar [11] published a review as a synthetic fruit of studies done on energy analysis. He presented the various solar energy systems used in solar drying [12, 13], solar air conditioning [14, 15], solar refrigeration [16], solar water heating [17], and solar cooking [18]. These systems have been operated by solar photovoltaic techniques [19] and solar thermal energy used for heat and power generation [20–22].

In terms of management and tri-generation system design, several studies [23–28] analyzed the energy potential through the integration and hybridization of renewable sources.

The new ORC-VCC combined system is developed. As it is shown in **Figures 1–4**, we wanted to design a new architecture for multi-objective optimization. It is a new system that can be operated in four modes depending on the type of the produced energy, namely, the electric energy, refrigeration, poly-generation, and water desalination. The four developed modes are:

• **Mode 1**: cold production. **Figure 1** illustrates the basic architecture of the system. It receives a heat flow from an external renewable source in the boiler so that the ORC cycle can be run in order to deliver a mechanical work at the turbine; this work is transmitted totally to the VCC cycle compressor (turbo system compressor). This system provides us a refrigeration quantity at the evaporator as illustrated in the figure.

• **Mode 2**: electricity power. **Figure 2** shows the basic installation. It also receives a quantity of heat from an external renewable source in the boiler to have mechanical work at the turbine; it is partially transmitted to the VCC cycle compressor. On the other hand, the power supplied by the VCC cycle evaporator is totally exploited by the ORC cycle condenser. So this mode of operation requires a renewable source and provides us an electric power.

*Performance Analysis of a New Combined Organic Rankine Cycle and Vapor Compression…*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91871*

**Figure 2.**

**Figure 3.**

**3**

*Cogeneration production mode.*

*Electricity production mode.*

**Figure 1.** *Cold production mode.*

*Performance Analysis of a New Combined Organic Rankine Cycle and Vapor Compression… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91871*

2014 [7] a target to reach 20% energy efficiency by 2020 and 30% by 2030. In fact, researches are looking for technologies that can be used to mitigate global warming around the world and reduce CO2 emissions [8]. Energy shortage problems are faced in all over the world and becoming more acute in all fields [9, 10] (metallurgy, chemical, electrical and mechanical sectors). So, the world is facing two energy challenges: increase production to meet energy needs and reduce CO2 emissions issued by industrial plants. For that, the utilization of renewable energy becomes a political duty and not a strategic choice to solve energy problems. Among these renewable resources used is the solar energy: Sunil Kumar [11] published a review as a synthetic fruit of studies done on energy analysis. He presented the various solar energy systems used in solar drying [12, 13], solar air conditioning [14, 15], solar refrigeration [16], solar water heating [17], and solar cooking [18]. These systems have been operated by solar photovoltaic techniques [19] and solar

In terms of management and tri-generation system design, several studies [23–28] analyzed the energy potential through the integration and hybridization of

• **Mode 1**: cold production. **Figure 1** illustrates the basic architecture of the system. It receives a heat flow from an external renewable source in the boiler so that the ORC cycle can be run in order to deliver a mechanical work at the turbine; this work is transmitted totally to the VCC cycle compressor (turbo system compressor). This system provides us a refrigeration quantity at the

The new ORC-VCC combined system is developed. As it is shown in **Figures 1–4**, we wanted to design a new architecture for multi-objective optimization. It is a new system that can be operated in four modes depending on the type of the produced energy, namely, the electric energy, refrigeration, poly-generation, and water desali-

thermal energy used for heat and power generation [20–22].

renewable sources.

*Electrodialysis*

**Figure 1.**

**2**

*Cold production mode.*

nation. The four developed modes are:

evaporator as illustrated in the figure.

• **Mode 2**: electricity power. **Figure 2** shows the basic installation. It also receives a quantity of heat from an external renewable source in the boiler to have mechanical work at the turbine; it is partially transmitted to the VCC cycle compressor. On the other hand, the power supplied by the VCC cycle evaporator is totally exploited by the ORC cycle condenser. So this mode of operation requires a renewable source and provides us an electric power.

The objectives of this study are:

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91871*

• Energy analysis and choice of fluids

**2. System description**

**Figure 5.** *System of study.*

**5**

• Architectural development of the basic system

• Development of improvement configurations

quantity of cold produced laying vapor phase VCC side.

• The impact of operating parameters on energy performance

In this study, we will develop a new ORC combination with the VCC system in order to make cogeneration and tri-generation with a negative temperature cold (10°C, 0°C), as well with a positive temperature cold (0°, 10°C). Three new configurations are examined and studied in terms of energy efficiency, namely, the performance of each configuration including net power, refrigeration

*Performance Analysis of a New Combined Organic Rankine Cycle and Vapor Compression…*

capacity and overall efficiency, the thermal efficiency for ORC, and the coefficient of performance for VCC. The working fluids are n-hexane for ORC and R600 for VCC.

As illustrated in **Figure 5**, the configuration consists of four circuits: an ORC cycle circuit represented by the red color, a circuit of the VCC cycle which is in blue, a circuit in purple color of the desalinated seawater, and a red circuit in the heated water. We will couple our facility with a limited renewable energy source which is thermal photovoltaic center, at low temperature (100–130°C). Our approach is to lower the condensing temperature between 10 and 10°C of the ORC cycle so that the delivered work can be increased. So, a cold part produced by VCC will be dedicated to condense the fluid of the ORC cycle. For this, we will integrate an exchanger regenerator1 which is used to condense the ORC fluid by a

**Figure 4.** *Tri-generation and desalination mode.*


In addition, each installation mode has several configurations depending on the recovery points that will be integrated later, besides its adaptation to any energy source, where we can use biomass, solar, and heat rejects of industry at low temperatures (60–130°C). This system could produce a negative and a positive cold. Although, due to its architecture, it is also characterized by many combinations of selection fluid for the ORC and VCC cycles, it is not necessary to have the same working fluid as the classic systems.

The main purpose of this presented study is to analyze the performance of a new system that combines the steam compression cycle and the Rankine cycle for trigeneration (electricity, cold, hot) as well as the desalination of water. This system uses a low-temperature heat source such as solar energy, heat from industrial waste, and biomass.

*Performance Analysis of a New Combined Organic Rankine Cycle and Vapor Compression… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91871*

The objectives of this study are:


In this study, we will develop a new ORC combination with the VCC system in order to make cogeneration and tri-generation with a negative temperature cold (10°C, 0°C), as well with a positive temperature cold (0°, 10°C). Three new configurations are examined and studied in terms of energy efficiency, namely, the performance of each configuration including net power, refrigeration capacity and overall efficiency, the thermal efficiency for ORC, and the coefficient of performance for VCC. The working fluids are n-hexane for ORC and R600 for VCC.
