District cooling by a geothermal heat source

Abstract

The design of an absorption cooling cycle based on a geothermal heat source is proposed for Stargard Szczeci_ski in West Pomerania, Poland. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) was used to write a model involving modules for each significant physical component of the system. The purpose was to make thermal and fluid-flow simulations to analyse the relationships between internal parameters of a single-stage 10 kW LiBr-water absorption cycle, and the influence on the Coefficient of Performance (COP). A model was designed and then tested for two variants of a 10 kW cooling machine. The results were then taken a step further, and applied to an advanced chiller design for a district cooling system. After a preliminary study of cooling load demand for the city of Stargard Szczeci_ski, a 500 kW unit is suggested. Calculations are based on the geothermal conditions and data from Geotermia Stargard.