An exhaust heat recovery generator is proposed to be integrated with conventional gas-fired triple-effect LiBr/water absorption cooling cycles to improve system energy efficiency. As a case study, simulation of the novel cycle based on promising parallel flow with cooling capacity of 1 150 kW is carried out under various heat recovery generator vapor production ratios ranging from 0 to 3.5%. The life cycle saving economic analysis, for which the annual gas conservation is estimated with Bin method, is employed to prove the worthiness of extra expenditure. Results show that the optimum gas saving revenue is obtained at 2.8% heat recovery generator vapor production ratio with 42 kW exhaust heat recovered, and the system energy efficiency is improved from 1.78 to 1.83. The initial investment of exchanger can be paid back within 7 years and 9 000 CNY of gas saving revenue will be achieved over the 15-year life cycle of the machine. This technology can be easily implemented and present desirable economic effects, which is feasible to the development of triple-effect absorption cycles.
