This study presents energy, exergy, and exergoeconomic assessments for a natural gas-fueled micro-trigeneration unit, which encompasses an internal combustion engine (ICE), an absorption refrigeration system (ammonia–water), and a heat recovery unit. The energy system is designed to meet the electricity and cooling demands of a university building, while heat is directed to a biodiesel plant located on site. The analyses comprehended energy and exergy parameters (first and second laws of thermodynamics). Then, the SPECO methodology was applied for the exergoeconomic assessment, which associates monetary values with exergy flows. The ICE presented the highest irreversibility (61.24 kW) and the highest cost of exergy destruction (21.56 BRL/h), followed by the steam generator (5.52 kW and 6.71 BRL/h, respectively). The exergoeconomic assessment indicated the components that could benefit from improvements: steam generator (cooling of exhaust gases before entry into the generator) and the heat exchanger of the absorber (substitution of the exchanger and/or pre-heating of input air). This study contributes to narrow the knowledge gap regarding the exergoeconomic assessment of compact trigeneration systems, besides making a case for the utilization of ICE as prime movers.

这项研究提供了天然气微型三联发电机组的能量，火用和能效经济评估，其中包括内燃机（ICE），吸收式制冷系统（氨水）和热回收装置。能源系统旨在满足大学建筑的电力和制冷需求，而热量则直接输送到位于现场的生物柴油厂。分析包括能量和火用参数（热力学第一定律和第二定律）。然后，将SPECO方法应用于能效经济评估，该评估将货币价值与能动流量相关联。ICE表现出最高的不可逆性（61.24 kW）和最高的火用破坏成本（21.56 BRL / h），其次是蒸汽发生器（分别为5.52 kW和6.71 BRL / h）。人体能经济评估表明，可以从改进中受益的组件是：蒸汽发生器（进入发生器之前先对废气进行冷却）和吸收器的热交换器（交换器的替代和/或输入空气的预热）。这项研究除了缩小利用ICE作为主要推动者的情况外，还有助于缩小有关紧凑型三代发电系统能效经济评估的知识差距。