Perspective and analysis of ammonia-based distributed energy system (DES) for achieving low carbon community in China

Carbon reduction in the building sector is crucial in achieving the carbon neutrality goal by 2050. Combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system is a practical technology to achieve energy cascade utilization for building. However, methane usage in the present CCHP system results in carbon dioxide emission, which causes great global warming potential. Ammonia is a non-carbon fuel, implying a potentially powerful measure to achieve carbon neutral burning when serves as fuel for the CCHP system. In this article, we propose the CCHP system that uses ammonia as the fuel source. An ammonia-based distributed energy system (DES) model was developed using brown and green ammonia fuel and an objective function based on ammonia fraction and gas power capacity ratio was proposed. It is found that brown ammonia is more carbon-intensive than green ammonia, but it is cheaper than green ammonia in 2022. However, it is shown that the DES with green ammonia is more economically competitive than brown ammonia by 2050.