Economic optimization and thermodynamic analysis of a novel nuclear district cooling system

“Yanlong” pool-type low-temperature heating reactor (DHR-400) stands at a highly promising nuclear heating technology. However, its annual utilization duration faces constraints when exclusively employed for winter heating. To cope with this challenge, a novel nuclear district cooling system driven by DHR-400 is proposed for the first time in this paper. As the core component of the proposed nuclear district cooling system, single-effect double-lift LiBr-H₂O absorption refrigeration system (SDARS) can significantly increase the temperature difference between the supply and return of the primary heating network (PHN), thereby reducing the transmission energy consumption. Despite the significant potential, the optimization design of SDARS has received limited attention. An optimization model for SDARS with the annual cost (AC) as the objective function is developed. Focusing on a real district cooling scenario in Xi'an High-tech Zone, the heat transfer areas of all process units and the operating parameters of all streams in SDARS are optimized. Results demonstrate that the optimal annual average coefficient of performance (AACOP) is improved by 10.63 % and AC is reduced by 5.44 % compared with the Benchmark case. The dynamic payback period for the combined heating and cooling system driven by DHR-400 is reduced by 5.53 years compared to the heating-only system.