Energy, exergy, and economic analysis of compression-absorption cascade refrigeration cycle using different working fluids

Compression-absorption cascade refrigeration cycle (CACRC) combined with vapor-compression refrigeration and absorption refrigeration cycle attracts great interest due to the less electricity consumption and utilization waste heat. In this work, the performance of the CACRC system was investigated using 16 refrigerants in the vapor compression section and H2O-LiBr in the absorption refrigeration section. Energy, exergy and economic analysis of the CACRC system were carried out and the results were compared. Results show that RE170/H2O-LiBr presents the better coefficient of performance and exergy efficiency amongst all the studied fluids. In addition, the economic optimization, multi-objective optimization, and thermodynamic optimization of the CACRC system based on the RE170/H2O-LiBr working fluid were also carried out.