Iran has obtained the technology to simultaneously generate electricity and heat, science and technology deputy to the president said Wednesday in a ceremony for inaugurating a building for 'trigeneration' - or combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) plant in Pardis Technology Park off Tehran.
"The CCHP technology could contribute to development of urban areas by significantly reducing fuel consumption," Sourena Sattari was quoted by Shana news agency as saying. "The technology is environment-friendly, leads to energy conservation, and helps preserve national wealth," he noted.
Trigeneration refers to the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heating and cooling from the combustion of a fuel or a solar heat collector. CCHP is a small and self-contained electric, heating and cooling generation plant that can provide power for households, commercial or industrial facilities. The energy system consists of a gas turbine, an absorption chiller and a heat recovery boiler.
Pardis Technology Park is in the satellite city of Pardis 20km east of Tehran. Construction of the plant was launched at a ceremony attended by Sattari, deputy head of the oil ministry pension fund, and managing director of the Oil Turbo Compressor Company.
Advantages of CCHP include decreased primary energy consumption in comparison with separate electricity/heat systems, reduced transmission and distribution losses by generating electricity on-site or near the end-use requiring heat, and decreased need to establish new power plants by meeting the needs of certain end-users with low-grade heat as opposed to electricity.
Higher Efficiency
CCHP systems can attain higher overall efficiencies than cogeneration or traditional power plants. Trigeneration differs from cogeneration in that the waste heat is used for both heating and cooling, typically in an absorption refrigerator.
Manufacturing of gas turbines operating with sour gas at a pressure of 7,000 parts-per-million (ppm) represents Iran's capability in optimal energy technologies, Sattari said, signifying the advantages CCHP offers to mega cities."The technology must be employed in future urban planning."
In a conventional CCHP system, a gas turbine provides the electrical generation and the waste heat is recovered for cooling and heating. Traditionally, utility-scale CCHP plants of 100 MW or more were commissioned to support large industrial processing plants. Light industry, commercial, and institutional applications have adopted smaller CCHP systems to realize economic savings and environmental benefits.
