Thermo-economic optimization and environmental analysis of a waste heat driven multi-ejector chiller for maritime applications
R. Mastrullo, A.W. Mauro, Giovanni Napoli, Luca Viscito
Abstract
Waste heat recovery from cruise ship engines is an attractive solution to mitigate the significant environmental impact of such systems. In this paper, a novel thermo-economic-environmental analysis is conducted on a waste heat driven multi-ejector compressor assisted chiller employed for air conditioning on a cruise ship ongoing in the Baltic Sea. Each component is modelled using validated sub-models, and a multi-objective optimization of several independent variables is performed to optimize the system design and find the best trade-off between nominal performance and investment costs. The proposed system is then compared to a traditional electric chiller by simulating their performance during the entire cooling season. The thermo-economic-environmental analysis results point out that the hybrid cycle allows higher performance, especially with a cold storage tank, payback period between 4 and 14 years (depending on the fuel prices, varying between 1.5 €·kg−1 and 3.0 €·kg−1) and pollutant emissions reduction up to 70 % compared to the baseline electric chiller.