Absorption Cycle Fundamentals and Applications Guidelines for Distillation Energy Savings

Abstract

The absorption cycle offers one of the most economic and widely applicable technologies for waste heat upgrading. It can use off-the-shelf hardware that is available now, at any required capacity rating. Fractional distillations, as a class of applications, embody characteristics that inherently make them economic candidates for absorption cycle heat upgrading. Practical applications to current U.S. distillations could save 30 trillion BTU per year, at payback periods ranging from 1 to 3 years.

So, if the absorption cycle is so great, why isn't it more in use? There are three reasons: (1) lack of understanding of the basic principles and operation; (2) lack of guidelines for readily identifying attractive applications, and (3) lack of a commercial U.S. demonstration in the highly cost-effective distillation area. This paper presents absorption cycle fundamentals and applications guidelines, and announces a government-backed search for a site for commercial demonstration of the distillation energy savings. The guidelines provide a new tool for identifying attractive absorption cycle applications. They require only knowledge of process source and sink temperatures, and they show at a glance approximate component characteristics and payback period for the absorption cycle which would serve the application.