A novel parallel-type hybrid-power gas engine-driven heat pump system

This paper presents a novel concept to integrate a heat pump system and a power system which form a hybrid-power gas engine-driven heat pump (HPGHP) system. The power system of the HPGHP system includes an engine, a motor, a set of battery packs, a continuous variable transmission device and a power-control module. The engine in the power system is capable of operating constantly with high thermal efficiency and low emissions during the four different operating modes: for operating mode A, the ICE powers directly to match the compressor's demand load by throttling the natural-gas flow or adjusting the speed of the ICE, correspondingly the battery packs are disengaged and the ICE operates alone; for operating mode B, the ICE operates in the unique condition with the lowest fuel consumption ratio, meanwhile, the battery packs discharge to provide the supplementary power by the power-control module; for operating mode C, the ICE operates in the unique condition with the lowest fuel consumption ratio, and the redundant power provided by the ICE is converted by the motor to charge the battery packs, here, the motor is used as a generator; for operating mode D, the ICE is disengaged and the battery pack is used alone. Simulation results of the power system showed that for a conventional gas engine-driven heat pump (GHP) system the maximum and minimum thermal efficiencies of the power system are 33% and 22%, respectively; compared with the conventional GHP system, the power system in the novel HPGHP system has superior performance with the maximum and minimum thermal efficiencies of 37% and 27%, respectively.