Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Integrating renewable energy technologies to support building trigeneration e

A multi-criteria analysis
K.J. Chua a, b, *, W.M. Yang a, T.Z. Wong a, C.A. Ho b
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore
Engineering Science Programme, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 27 June 2011
Accepted 12 November 2011
Available online 14 December 2011

This paper evaluates the potential of hybridising renewable technologies to support trigeneration. A
model for trigeneration has been developed for simulation and evaluation. The developed trigeneration
system aims to be self-sustaining where cooling, heating and power needs of a commercial building are
simultaneously fullled. The system comprises four key sub-systems, namely, photovoltaic-thermal,
solar-thermal, fuel cell, microturbine and absorption chiller-water system. Conventionally, a trigeneration system is analysed based on cost reduction without considering the energy used and the level of
carbon dioxide emission. In contrast, this paper presents an analysis of the system using a multi-criteria
analysis approach in terms of: (1) operation cost reduction, (2) energy saving; and (3) minimum environmental impact. For the present trigeneration system layout, our result has indicated that a trigeneration system consisting of 80% of microturbine, 10% of photovoltaic-thermal and 10% fuel cell to be the
optimum system composition in terms of reducing operational cost, improving energy saving and
minimising environment impact. The methodology portrayed in this study provides a pragmatic
approach in the design of renewable energy systems to support trigeneration applications.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Renewable energy
Trigeneration
Simulation
Multi-criteria analysis

1. Introduction
Recently, the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2007 claims that
fossil fuel will remain the major source and is expected to generate
84% energy of the market demand [1]. Major ecological and environment consequences are the results from continuous energygenerating cycle from fossil fuel [2,3]. The global warming effect,
caused by the massive energy production, particularly from the
greenhouse gas emission markedly impact on the environment.
Hence, a steady, secure and accessible energy supply plays a vital
role in the development of sustainable energy-generating systems.
Trigeneration system also known as CCHP (combined cooling,
heating, and power) system involves power generation and uses
available waste heat for cooling and heating or domestic hot water
production [4]. A typical trigeneration system involves the extension of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) or cogeneration plant by
coupling a CHP prime mover to thermally-driven equipment to
produce cooling. Prime mover is the key component of any power
* Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National
University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore.
Tel.: 65 6516 2558; fax: 65 779 1459.
E-mail address: chuae@alumni.nus.edu.sg (K.J. Chua).
0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2011.11.017

generation system. Industrial prime movers include gas microturbine, various combustion engine, Stirling engine or fuel cell [5].
Thermally-driven equipment referred to the absorption chiller or
desiccant dehumidier normally sustained by the by-product heat
from the prime mover to provide cooling effect [5]. In the present
scheme, the harnessed thermal power from prime movers is
exploited to produce cooling. One of the biggest shortcomings of
cogeneration is the lack of adequate heating demand throughout
the year and is made up by transforming the CHP plant to meet the
cooling demand [6].
Researchers have modelled several trigeneration system
congurations [7,8]. Maidment et al. [7] have studied the feasibility
of CCHP system which integrates a combustion engine with an
absorption chiller cooling system. The results from their work have
demonstrated that the cooling, heating and electricity generated by
the CCHP system can be fully utilized. Additionally, they found that
primary energy consumption was signicantly less when compared
to the conventional power generation system and the payback
period for the system was reasonable. In the same vein, a study on
the energy efciency and economic feasibility of the CCHP system
driven by Stirling engine, conducted by Kong et al. [8], has
demonstrated that trigeneration systems have greater energy
saving in terms of better energy conservation and efciency.

K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

Nomenclature
A
PVT collector gross area
PVT collector area (m2)
Ac
AFC
alkaline fuel cell
specic heat capacity of water (kJ/kg K)
CPf
CCHP
combined cooling, heating and power
Cost
cost (S$ or S$/kJ/hr)
COP
coefcient of performance
CNG
compressed natural gas
GCE
generated carbon dioxide emission (kg)
PEC
primary energy consumption (kJ/hr)
PER
primary energy ratio
PFI
performance fraction indicator
PVT
photovoltaic-thermal
STC
solar-thermal collector
STP
solar-thermal plate
fDesignEnergyInput fraction of design energy input required by the
machine
energy consumption from hydrogen fuel (kJ/hr)
FH2
energy consumption from CNG fuel (kJ/hr)
FCNG
overall heat removal efciency factor
FR,j
modied collector heat efciency factor
F~R
h
enthalpy (kJ/kg)
global radiation incident on the solar collectors
IT
surface
_L
uid mass ow rate to the load and or of the makeup
m
water of stratied uid storage tank (kg/hr)
number of identical PVT collectors connected in series
Ns
power supplied from AFC (kJ/hr)
PAFC
power supplied from PVT (kJ/hr)
PPVT
power supplied from microturbine (kJ/hr)
PMct
total power generated from prime mover (kJ/hr)
Ptotal
heating power supplied from PVT (kJ/hr)
QPVT
heating power supplied from STP (kJ/hr)
QSTP
Qproduce_heat waste heat from prime mover to heating load (kJ/hr)
Qheating heating load required by the building (kJ/hr)
Qheater additional heat required to handle heating load (kJ/hr)
Qcooling heat required by chiller to handle full cooling load (kJ/hr)
additional heat required by chiller to handle cooling
Qadd
load (kJ/hr)

Researchers have evaluated the CCHP system in terms of the

reduction of pollution such as carbon saving, greenhouse gas
emission reduction for different applications. Mago et al. [9],
Mancarella and Chicco [10] have evaluated their CCHP models in
terms of the greenhouse gas emission. In general, a well-designed
CCHP model has the potential to trim greenhouse gas emissions
during its operations.
Trigeneration system can be evaluated on its cost of operation or
production, the reduction in the primary energy input consumption, the reduction of the greenhouse gas emission or any of the
listed combination. Cardona and Piacentino [11], Chicco and Mancarella [12], Sun et al. [13], and Li et al. [14] have investigated
strategies to reap maximum primary energy saving (PES). Adopting
the appropriate PES-enhancing strategy, the quality of the thermal
energy produced from the CCHP system can be signicantly
improved. Chicco and Mancarella [12] have evaluated their CCHP
system via the introduction of a performance indicator termed trigeneration primary energy saving. This indicator relates the fuel
energy saving from any trigeneration system when compared to
a same-scale conventional power system. Accordingly, up to 70% of
energy saving can be achieved from the application of CCHP. Sun

359

Qproduce_cool waste heat from prime mover supplied to chiller to

handle cooling load (kJ/hr)
Qsupply total energy supply to the system (kJ/hr)
Qcoolingload total cooling load of the building (kJ/hr)
Qheatingload total heating load of the building (kJ/hr)
~
S
solar radiation per unit area absorbed (W/m2)
temperature of the rst tank segment of stratied uid
T1
storage tank (K)
temperature of the water extracted from the stratied
TL
uid storage tank to supply the heating load (K)
ambient air temperature (K)
Ta
PVT collector uid inlet temperature (K)
Tf,i
inlet temperature of the uid to PVT collector (K)
Ti,j
overall thermal loss coefcient of the collector per unit
UL,j
area (W/m2 K)
UL
overall thermal conductance for collector heat losses
(W/m2 K)
total electricity load of the building (kJ/hr)
Pload
auxiliary power required to operate prime mover and
Waux
chiller (kJ/hr)
Greek symbols
h
cell array efciency (hr and ha refer to values evaluated
at reference and ambient temperature, respectively)
hmech
mechanical efciency
his
isentropic efciency
Dh
change in enthalpy (kJ/kg)
Subscript
chw
hw
CCHP
fuel
heat
electric
in
comp
out
set
tur

chilled water
hot water
combined cooling, heating, and power
CNG/hydrogen
heating load
electricity load
inlet conditions
compressor
outlet conditions
set point
turbine

et al. [13] adopted a performance evaluation method, primary

energy rate to compare the energy efciency of various hybrid
systems to produce cooling and heating requirements. PER is
dened as the ratio of the required input to primary energy demand
where a higher PER is favourable for the designed system. Li et al.
[15] introduced an indicator called fuel energy saving ratio (FESR) in
his analysis. In brief, FESR is dened by the ratio of energy savings
derived from CCHP systems to the energy required by separate
production means in order to produce the same energy supply.
The chief point to be delivered in this study is that the potential
of integrating multiple renewable energy technologies into trigeneration systems has to be evaluated based on a multi-criteria
analysis approach so as to: (1) minimise costs of operating such
a system, (2) minimize cost of fuel to sustain trigeneration operation; and (3) maximise environmental effectiveness while striving
for innovation, exibility, and optimal integration. The key advantage of employing a multi-criteria approach to analyse such
a system is that it provides a more holistic approach towards
realising such a hybrid trigeneration system operating on multiple
renewable energy resources. The specic objectives of this study
include: (1) develop an energy-component system framework to

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K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

produce trigeneration that meets the needs of a commercial

building, (2) integrate several key performance indicators, namely,
primary energy consumption, system cost and level of carbon
dioxide emission to yield an overall performance indicator to
evaluate a trigeneration system design; and (3) demonstrate the
application of an overall performance indicator to different trigeneration congurations and illustrate its capacity to be a more
efcient, more effective and more capable of change than analysing
the system based on each criterion individually.

the heat source at the generator of the absorption chiller. A portion

of this heat acts the heat provision to the building. The sun energy
provides the necessary power/heat generation at the PVT and STC.
Where the waste heat recovered is insufcient to meet the thermal
requirements, additional heating power Qadd and Qheater can be
provided by means of an external source, such as an auxiliary boiler,
to produce the thermal heat decit required for the chiller operation as well as the buildings heating needs. The entire system has
been judiciously planned, integrated and assembled to realize
a pragmatic trigeneration application.

2. Trigeneration system descriptions

2.1. Building loads
Conventional cogeneration system integrates microturbine with
absorption chiller to provide power and cooling [15e17]. The trigeneration system proposed in this study incorporates alkaline fuel
cell (AFC), photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) and solar-thermal collectors
(STC) as auxiliary prime movers. Mulder and co-investigators have
demonstrated that AFC possess signicant advantages over PEM
fuel cell in terms of more tolerance towards hydrogen of lower
purity levels, higher efciency and possibility of using non-noble
catalyst [18]. Residential buildings in Telford, England, have
demonstrated possible full-scale operations based utilising AFCs
[19]. The AFC technology remains a key renewable option for the
future due to its low cost, high efcient and performance reliability.
It is also noted that both PVT and STC are both zero emission
renewable technologies that help to reduce operational cost as well
as minimise carbon dioxide emission.
The assembly of the renewable technologies to support trigeneration is shown in Fig. 1. Three primary prime movers, namely,
microturbine, AFC and PVT, are installed to provide cogeneration electrical power and thermal heat. The fuel sources for microturbine and AFC are compressed natural gas and hydrogen,
respectively. The heat captured from the ue gas of the microturbine, the conversion of solar radiation to thermal heat at the PVT
and the waste heat generated from the AFC are collected to provide

In this study, the trigeneration system is designed to meet the

demands of a reference building load. The reference building load
selected is a commercial building on a typical hot and humid day
[20]. The selected building is a 10 storey ofce building with a total
area of 20,000 m2 and 70% of the building is equipped with airconditioning system. The occupied space set parameters are
24e26  C and 40e60% of relative humidity. The air exchange rate is
30 m3/h per person according to the comfort requirement. The
occupancy rate during the working hours is 8 m2 per person. The
annual daily power, cooling and heat load proles are assumed to
remain relatively constant.
The heating load for a multi-functional commercial building
includes domestic hot water provision for cooking in caf, restaurants, sterilization in clinic, bath, washing etc. The cooling, heating
and electric loading adopted in this study is shown in Fig. 2.
2.2. Mathematical model
According to the system layout, shown in Fig. 1, the modelling of
the trigeneration system is divided into ve sub-systems, namely,
PVT sub-system, solar-thermal collector sub-system, microturbine
sub-system, double effect absorption chiller sub-system and

F H2
Waux

F CNG

Alkaline Fuel Cell

PMct

P AFC
Solar
Radiation
Solar
Radiation

Microturbine

P PVT
Waste Heat
PVT

Qadd
Heat Recovery
system

QPVT
Solar Thermal
Collector

QSTP

Double Effect
Absorption Chiller

Hot Water

Qheater
Qheating

Qcooling

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed trigeneration system.

Ptotal
Building

K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

361

Fig. 2. Reference building load: (a) cooling load, (b) electrical load, and (c) heating load.

alkaline fuel cell sub-system. The ve sub-systems, when connected, yield an integrated system capable of providing the desired
power, cooling and heating needs.
2.2.1. PVT sub-model
The PVT sub-model is an un-glazed solar collector which creates
power from the embedded photovoltaic (PV) cells and extracts
thermal energy from the PV cells. The modelled PVT recovers waste
heat from PV cells thereby cooling them. Accordingly, higher PV
power conversion efciency is expected. Florshuetz [21] developed
a model for photovoltaic/thermal collectors as an extension to the
Hottel-Whillier model for thermal analysis of at plat collectors.
Dufe and Beckman [22] conducted a review on the HottelWhillier model and developed a model for the useful thermal gain
for a at plate collector. The useful thermal gain of the collector can be
expressed in a similar form as presented by Dufe and Beckman [22].

h

i
S  U L Tf ;i  Ta
Qu Ac F~ R ~

(1)

For the electrical model, Florshuetz [21] did an overall energy

balance to account for thermal losses and useful thermal gain to
obtain an expression for the electrical output of the photovoltaic/
thermal collector as described by Equation (2). It is assumed that
the photovoltaic cells operate at maximum power point condition.

Qe

A c Sh a

(
1

"

hr br ~
F R Tf ;i  Ta
ha

~
S



U L 1  F~R

#)
(2)

2.2.2. Solar-thermal collector sub-model

This sub-model emphasises thermal performance of a theoretical at plate collector comprising collectors connected in series
and in parallel. The Hottel-Whillier steady-state model is adapted

to evaluate the thermal performance [23]. The energy collection of

each module in an array of Ns modules in series is expressed by the
Hottel-Whilliers model as shown.

Ns



A X
FR;j IT sa  UL;j Ti;j  Ta
Ns

(3)

j1

where A is the collector gross area, Ns is the number of identical

collectors in series, FR,j is the overall heat removal efciency factor,
IT is the global radiation incident on the solar collectors surface, UL,j
is the overall thermal loss coefcient of the collector per unit area,
Ti,j is the inlet temperature of the uid to collector, Ta is the ambient
air temperature.
The thermal tank is a stratied uid storage tank with internal
auxiliary heater. The thermal performance of a uid-lled sensible
energy storage tank, subjected to thermal stratication, can be
modelled by segmenting the tank into N (N < 15) fully mixed equalvolume parts. Six equal segments or nodes (N 6) were adopted for
the thermal storage tank. Each thermal tank incorporates two
internal auxiliary heaters. Both of the auxiliary heaters adhere to
a master/slave operating mode. The rate of the sensible energy is
removed from the tank to supply to the load is computed as

_ L ,CPf ,T1  TL
Q_ s m

(4)

_ L is the uid mass ow rate to the load and or of the

where m
makeup water, CPf is the water specic heat, T1 is the temperature of
the rst tank segment and TL is the temperature of the water
extracted from the tank to supply the heating load.
2.2.3. Microturbine sub-model
The two key components of the microturbine are the gas
compressor and gas turbine. Both gas compressor and gas turbine

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K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

models calculate the outlet conditions from the inlet state by using
their respective isentropic efciencies. Gas compressor depends on
the input gas or air to compress it to the desired outlet gas or air
condition whereas the gas turbine produces work from the input
gas.
For compressor, the governing equations are shown below,

Dhcomp

hout;is  hin

(5)

his

hcomp;out hcomp;in Dhcomp

Pcomp

(6)

_ out ,Dhcomp
m

(7)

hmech

For turbine, the governing equations are shown below,

Dhtur

hin  hout;is

(8)

his

htur;out htur;in  Dhtur

(9)

_ in ,Dhtur ,hmech
Ptur m

(10)

The combustion chamber undergoes an adiabatic process and it

accommodates different liquid or gaseous fuels. In this model, the
fuel properties are dened by the lower heating value and the mass
ratio of the fuel elements: C, H2, S, O2, N2, H2O, ash and air-nitrogen
given in the organic analysis. The lower heating energy will be used
to estimate the input fuel energy obtained from the natural gas, and
together with the mass ratio of the fuel elements, they determine
the products from the possible chemical reaction in the combustion
chamber. A typical natural gas composition is shown in Table 1 [24].
The mass ratio constitutes 72.24% of C, 23.036% of H2, 1.84% of O2
and 2.89% of N2. In the combustion chamber, the natural gas
undergoes complete combustion whereby the following reactions
take place:

CH4 2O2 /CO2 2H2 O

(11)

2C2 H6 7O2 /4CO2 6H2 O

(12)

C3 H8 5O2 /3CO2 4H2 O

(13)

2C4 H10 13O2 /8CO2 10H2 O

(14)

C5 H12 8O2 /5CO2 6H2 O

(15)

2C6 H14 19O2 /12CO2 14H2 O

(16)

Table 2
Results from various chemical reaction.
Natural gas
composition

O2 required
(kg/kg fuel)

CO2 produced
(kg/kg fuel)

H2O produced
(kg/kg fuel)

Methane, CH4
Ethane, C2H6
Propane, C3H8
Butane, C4H10
Pentane, C5H12
Hexane, C6H14
Carbon Dioxide
Nitrogen
Water
Total

3.3748
0.2326
0.0149
0.0355
0.0188
0.0138
e
e
e
3.6904

2.3202
0.1827
0.0618
0.0300
0.0162
0.0120
0.0252
e
e
2.6481

1.8983
0.1121
0.0337
0.0154
0.0080
0.0057
e
e
0.0001
2.0733

From the mass balance of the chemical reactions in Equations

(11)e(16), the mass ratios of the required reactant, O2 and the
product from the emission, CO2 and H2O can be summarized in the
Table 2. For the recuperator model, the NTU- method was adopted.
The model has the capacity to simulate different heat exchanger
types having different recuperator effectiveness correlation.
2.2.4. Absorption chiller sub-model
To provide chilled water for air-conditioning, the trigeneration
involves a double effect hot water red absorption chiller. The heat
required to drive the chiller was provided by a hot water stream.
The total amount of energy removed from the chilled water is



$
Qchw
m$chw ,CPchw , Tchw;in  Tchw;set

(17)

The total energy delivered to the chiller by the hot water is

$
Qhw

Capacityrated
,fDesignEnergyInput
COPrated

Trigeneration system

(18)

Design prime
mover
components %

System cost
Microturbine %
AFC %

PER

PVT %
STC %

PEC

GCE

Table 1
Typical composition of natural gas in terms of mole and mass fraction.
Natural gas composition

Mole fraction

Mass fraction

Methane, CH4
Ethane, C2H6
Propane, C3H8
Butane, C4H10
Pentane, C5H12
Hexane, C6H14
Carbon Dioxide
Nitrogen
Water
Total

0.9229
0.0360
0.0080
0.0029
0.0013
0.0008
0.0100
0.0180
0.0001
1.00

0.8437
0.0623
0.0206
0.0099
0.0053
0.0039
0.0252
0.0289
0.0001
1.00

Re-design
Low

PFI

High
Possible trigeneration system
configuration
Fig. 3. Trigeneration system design process using sizing approach.

K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

363

Fig. 4. Percentage of the contribution of microturbine, PVT, STC, AFC and additional electrical supplied in 8 different trigeneration system congurations: (a) Percentage contribution to electricity load, (b) Percentage contribution to cooling load, and (c) Percentage contribution to heating load.

where fDesignEnergyInput is the fraction of design energy input

required by the machine
The total energy ejection to the cooling tower water stream is
$
$
$
$
Qcw
Qchw
Qhw
Qaux

(19)

where Qaux is the energy draw of parasitic equipment such as

pumps, control-valves etc.
The temperature of the chilled water, hot water, and cooling
water outlets are

Thw;out Thw;in 

Tchw;out

$
Qhw
mhw C_ Phw

 $

MIN Qchw
; Capacity
Tchw;in 
m
C_

(20)

$
Qcw
mcw C_

$
Qchw
$
Qaux

where Ustack is the stack voltage of AFC and Istack is the stack current
of the AFC.
The heat generated by AFC, QAFC is calculated as

1  hE

(25)

hE

where hE is the energy efciency of AFC.

The energy efciency of AFC, hE is computed as

(22)

hE

The COP is calculated from

$
Qhw

(24)

(21)

Pcw

COP

PAFC Ustack ,Istack

QAFC PAFC ,

chw Pchw

Tcw;out Tcw;in 

oxidant into electrical current. Hydrogen-air fuel cell operation

mode is adopted for this work having hydrogen as the fuel and air
as the oxidant. The products of the AFC are electricity, liquid water
and heat. The total hydrogen and air consumption are computed
internally by the AFC model [26].
The total power generated by AFC, PAFC is computed as

Ucell
Utn

(26)

where Ucell is the cell voltage and Utn is the thermoneutral cell
voltage.

(23)

A cooling tower rejects the heat from the chilled water. The
cooling tower model relies on the algorithms of a closed circuit
evaporative cooling tower model by proposed by Zweifel et al. [25].
2.2.5. Fuel cell sub-model
The electrochemical alkaline fuel cell (AFC) model is based on an
empirical relationship developed based on the currentevoltage
characteristic at normal operation temperature. AFC is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy of fuel and an

Table 3
Capital cost of the trigeneration system [30e32].
Components

Capital cost

Power

Heating

Cooling

Crystalline Silicon
PVT module
STC modules
Microturbine
AFC modules
Double effect
absorption chiller

S$ 515/m2

S$5653/kW

S$990/kW

e
S$1050/kW
S$300/kW
e

S$1016/kW
e
e
e

e
e
e
S$675/kW

S$630/m
S$1050/kW
S$300/kW
S$675/kW

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K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

2.3. Integrated system model

The trigeneration system model was developed by integrating
sub-models according to the energy streams and actual ow
pattern along the components. The simulation tool or environment
adopted for the components integration is TRNSYS 16 [27]. TRNSYS
16 is a quasi-steady/transient simulation program model. It
contains sub-routines that model a variety of energy system having
key equations presented in terms of their ordinary differential or
algebraic equations. TRNSYS 16 is capable of interconnecting
different system components in a tailored design. In the TRNSYS 16
simulating platform, the iteration solution proceeds in several
steps. Firstly, each component subroutine is designed to compute
the output from the sub-models based on the supplied information.
Secondly, the outputs of the component are connected to the inputs
of other sub-models. Thirdly, the iteration of the trigeneration
system continues until all the sub-routines have converged.
3. Trigeneration system evaluation e a multi-criteria
approach
In this study, various congurations of the trigeneration system
are evaluated based on primary energy ratio (PER), primary energy
consumption (PEC), carbon dioxide emission and cost. A performance fraction indicator is then used to compare the various
congurations based on an overall score in order to provide
a holistic evaluation of the systems. By means of a sizing exercise,
each conguration entails different degrees of penetration of the
various renewable energy technologies into the trigeneration
system. The sizing exercise was judiciously carried out through
a process where each system is evaluated before a new conguration is conceptualized. Fig. 3 displays the ow of this process in the
form of a owchart. In this study, 8 cases of different trigeneration
system conguration were being evaluated based on economic
costs, primary energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission.
The distribution of electricity, cooling and heating load to be fullled
by the 8 congurations is presented in Fig. 4. The various evaluation
criteria are explained more in detail in the following section.
3.1. Primary energy ratio (PER)
Conventional system performance evaluation methods in terms
of electricity efciency, thermal efciency, and coefcient of


1
%
PER

Table 5
Parameters, inputs or outputs adopted for the trigeneration system
simulation.
Value

PVT thermal efciency

PVT electricity efciency
STC thermal efciency
AFC energy efciency
Compressor Efciency
Turbine Efciency
Electric Generator efciency
COP of absorption Chiller

0.2e0.5
0.1e0.2
0.5e0.7
0.5e0.6
0.84
0.83
0.90
1.1e1.3

performance of the proposed trigeneration is the PER [8]. Trigeneration efciency indicators are typically dened by considering the energy supplied in combined production in comparison
to that of separate production of the various types of energy
needed to serve the same loads. Such indicators can potentially
provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the potential energy
savings of trigeneration system [28] and is a part of a present ongoing study. However, it this paper, we have adopted the PER
parameter as a key performance indicator. It is dened as the ratio
of the primary energy demand to the required output. To facilitate
better system performance comparison, the percentage of inverse
of PER value is utilized in this study. The system with higher
percentage of 1/PER is considered the best with regard to energy
consumption.
The PER value for the trigeneration system is computed as

PER

Qsupply
Qcoolingload Qheatingload Pload

(27)

The percentage of 1/PER for the trigeneration system is obtained as

Qcoolingload Qheatingload Pload

1
,100%
%
PER
Qsupply

(28)

From the Equations (27) and (28), the net fuel supply to the
trigeneration system comprises both hydrogen and natural gas
supplies. The net fuel heat input, Qsupply can be calculated from the
product of the fuel mass ow rate and the lower heating value of
the fuel. The cooling load capacity, Qcoolingload, heating load
capacity, Qheatingload, and net power generated Pload are obtained
from the outputs of the model simulation. The percentage of 1/PER
is, therefore, computed as


Qcooling  Qadd QPVT QSTP PPVT PAFC PMct  Qheater
FH2 FCNG

Parameters/Inputs/Outputs

,100%

(29)

performance are applicable for single generation or cogeneration

system production evaluation and may not suitable for the trigeneration. The decisive value or evaluation method on the system
Table 6
PEC, cost, GCE, PER and PFI for different system congurations.
Table 4
Electricity, natural gas and hydrogen site-to-primary energy conversion factors,
prices, carbon dioxide emission conversion factors for Singapore [33e37].
Fuel type

Site-to-primary
energy conversion
factors

Prices

Carbon dioxide emission

conversion factors

Electricitya
Natural Gas
Hydrogen

3.340
1.047
1.000

0.253 SGD/kWh
1.335 SGD/kg
3.750 SGD/kg

0.749 kg/kWh
2.648 kg/kg fuel
0.000 kg/kg fuel

average electricity price of high voltage large supplies.

PEC (kWh/year) Cost (S$/year) GCE (kg/year) PER

Case 1
48,09,499
Case 2
39,89,723
Case 3
58,77,361
Case 4
60,82,930
Case 5
63,58,434
Case 6
67,58,873
Case 7
61,65,038
Case 8
74,80,216
Reference 1,53,42,624

37,10,616
36,97,673
32,98,324
36,81,691
40,19,453
35,02,401
43,13,248
36,96,782
35,94,841

20,41,156
16,52,364
17,85,306
17,85,500
18,69,613
18,69,613
19,13,115
19,13,115
34,40,606

57.61
70.53
79.84
80.76
87.39
79.13
82.62
90.6
e

PFI
1.9,38,934
1.7,68,901
1.8,19,483
1.9,39,581
2.0,75,943
1.9,58,211
2.1,57,708
2.0,71,942
e

K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

365

Fig. 5. Variation of the 8 different congurations for the sizing approach in: (a) Cost, (b) PEC, and (c) GCE.

3.2. System cost

The overall cost to set up a trigeneration system is one of the
major concerns in any energy system design. Generally, system cost
may be divided into three categories: capital, fuel input and operation & maintenance costs. Major capital costs of the trigeneration
system are shown in Table 3. The trigeneration system fuel input or
consumption cost pertains to the cost incurred for supplying the
natural gas and hydrogen for microturbine and alkaline fuel cell
operations respectively and are shown in Table 4.
3.3. Primary energy consumption (PEC)
One key factor in determining if a trigeneration system is performing an energy-efcient manner is the systems primary energy
consumption. PEC refers to the raw fuel that is needed to generate
heat and electricity. To evaluate the efciency of a trigeneration
system with varying input resource rates, it is imperative to convert
the energy consumption into equivalent units. The PEC concept can
be applied for conversion. The site-to-primary energy conversion
factors studied by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was
adopted for the purpose of the conversion in this study and presented in Table 4 [29]. Briey, site-to-primary energy conversion
factors are applied to convert each kBTU of energy used on site into
the total kBTU equivalent of source energy consumed.
3.4. Generated carbon dioxide emission (GCE)
GCE from any energy system is dened as the measure of the
total emission of carbon dioxide generated from operating the

system. The carbon dioxide emission levels due to power generated

from renewable energy technologies and conventional grid are
expected to be different. Hence, a carbon dioxide emission
conversion factor as shown in Table 4 is used to estimate the total
carbon dioxide emission from various trigeneration system
congurations.
3.5. Overall performance factor indicator (PFI)
Typically, the evaluation of the design of an energy system is
based on one of these considerations: PEC, system cost and GCE. In
order to evaluate a trigeneration system in terms of enhanced
energy saving, cost and greenhouse gas emission reductions, an
integrated indicator is necessary. Mago et al. introduce a performance factor indicator (PFI) which integrates three main aspects
for the evaluation process e energy savings, economic cost and
generated carbon dioxide emission of the system [4]. The lower the
PFI value, the more energy-efcient and cost-effective the trigeneration system operates and performs. The PFI is dened as,

PFI

PECCCHP
CostCCHP
GCECCHP

PECconventional Costconventional GGEconventional

(30)

4. Results and discussion

This trigeneration system was simulated for a known building
load reference. The cooling, heating and electric loads of the
building are presented in Fig. 2. The key parameters that govern the
trigeneration system performance are presented in Table 5.

366

K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

Fig. 6. Carbon credit saving obtained from the carbon dioxide emission reduction for
the 8 different trigeneration system congurations.

Employing the sizing approach, the PEC, cost, GCE, PFI and PER
values for different trigeneration system congurations were obtained and are presented in Table 6. Fig. 5(a) illustrates the cost
variation of for the eight different trigeneration congurations. Case
3 and case 6 portrayed lower costs in contrast to the other cases. In
cases 3 and 6, 10e20% of PVT was used to support the building load.
Heat and power generation from the PVT was sufcient to support
the building requirements. Accordingly, the required fuel input cost
was reduced and the direct implication on the overall cost of the
system was a signicant reduction. Case 5 and case 7 showed higher
cost increment amounting to 11e20%. This is attributed to the
higher deployment of PVT, 20% as in case 5 and 30% as in case 7. The
results suggest that PVT should be deployed nominally due to the
higher costs involved in the installation of PVT.
In terms of system cost, case 3 demonstrated the most desirable
conguration with the highest cost reduction; offering better
payback period and attractive economic returns. Fig. 5(b) presents
the PEC variations of the 8 different trigeneration systems. Generally, all congurations showed marked reduction in primary energy
consumption spanning 51%e74%. Comparing the 8 congurations,
only cases 1 and 2 are self-sustaining in meeting the cooling
demands as the waste heat recovered from the microturbine is
sufcient to meet the hot water requirements of the absorption
chiller. Consequentially, this results in a lower PEC as compared to
the rest of the 6 cases. This result suggests that the microturbine
has to be sized according to the cooling demand so as to fully
exploit the trigeneration capabilities of the microturbine. Case 2
yielded the highest PEC reduction of 74% for on site power generation. This is attributed by the higher utilization of STC to provide
for the heating load as compared to Case 1. Fig. 5(c) compares the
GCE levels of the 8 trigeneration congurations. All congurations

Fig. 8. The PFI values of 8 the different trigeneration system congurations.

showed considerable reduction in the carbon dioxide emission

spanning 40.5e52%. Again, case 2 showed the maximum GCE
reduction of 52%. This marked reduction is translated to a carbon
credit saving of S$935,000 per year as illustrated in Fig. 6. While
case 3 offers an attractive option in terms of economic sense, results
indicate that case 2 provides a better option in terms of reduction in
carbon dioxide and primary energy savings.
Fig. 7 contrasts the 1/PER percentage changes of the eight trigeneration congurations. A steady increase in percentage from
case 1 to case 8 was observed. The increment could be attributed to
the higher reliance on PVT and STC and lesser deployment of
microturbine to generate power and heat. Higher percentage of PVT
and STC reliance to meet the trigeneration duties resulted in lower
fuel consumption, thereby, yielding better 1/PER with less fuel
being consumed to generate the same amount of energy outputs.
However, there are associated drawbacks with higher reliance on
PVT and STC which is manifested in the form of lower electrical
efciency of the PVT, higher capital cost of the PVT and STC. Hence,
1/PER alone may not be sufce to analyze trigeneration systems
based on economic and environmental factors.
Fig. 8 portrays the PFIs of the 8 different trigeneration congurations. The PFI offers a more holistic and multi-objective evaluation of the system, accounting for costs, carbon dioxide and energy
consumption. For instance, as discussed earlier, case 2 offers better
in terms of cost savings while case 3 performs better in terms of
GCE and PEC. A lower PFI directly translates to greater reduction in
cost, carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption for the
specic trigeneration system. Fig. 8 shows that the case 2 conguration comprising 80% of microturbine, 10% of PVT and 10% AFC
yielded the lowest PFI. Therefore, case 2 trigeneration conguration
is deemed to deliver the best performance compared to the others
where cost, GCE and PEC have been simultaneously evaluated.
5. Conclusions
A trigeneration model which integrates several renewable
energy technologies to provide power, cooling and heating to
a commercial building has been formulated and studied. Key
results that emerged from this study include:

Fig. 7. The percentage of the 1/PER factor of the 8 different trigeneration system
congurations.

1. The trigeneration system is self-sustaining and utilizes the

waste heat generated from the microturbine, fuel cell and PVT
in order to provide the heating and cooling for needs of
a commercial building.
2. The trigeneration system that potentially achieved better
system performance in terms of 1/PER, spanned 60%e90%,
depending on the percentage of PVT and STC usage. The key
drawback of greater energy reliance on PVT or STC is the higher
capital cost.

K.J. Chua et al. / Renewable Energy 41 (2012) 358e367

3. Results from a sizing exercise conducted on different trigeneration system congurations have revealed that one system
comprising 80% of microturbine, 10% of PVT and 10% AFC yielded the lowest PFI of 1.7 translating to lowest cost to sustain
trigeneration operation, best energy saving potential and
lowest level of carbon dioxide emission.
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