Preface: CCHP systems have been investigated by different researchers in the last decade. The researches reveal that CCHP is reliable and economical. It saves fuel and reduces air pollutions and green house gases. It is also safer with respect to the centralized power generation systems in critical situations such as war, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. Due to these essential characteristics it is predicted that using distributed power generation systems such as CHP and CCHP systems develops rapidly in the near future. This book is written as a guide for different CCHP researchers, designers and operators. The contents of this book can accelerate the new researches and save a considerable time for those who are new to this topic. This book also presents some general guideline for operation and maintenance of the CCHP systems. In chapter one most of the published researches from 2002 to 2013 are summarized. The main attention of this literature review is to present the main designing and decision-making criteria which the researchers and designers have been concerned about. In addition different CCHP cycles presented by different investigations have been discussed and presented. In this literature review, the reader will be familiar with many CCHP cycles and their components. In chapter two the main technologies which are used in the basic CCHP cycles are introduced. These technologies include different prime mover types such as steam turbine, gas turbine, reciprocating internal combustion engine, micro-gas turbine, micro-steam turbine, Stirling engine, fuel cells and thermal photovoltaic. The basic CCHP cycles which can be designed with different prime movers are also presented. Furthermore the cooling system technologies especially those which are thermally operated are presented in this chapter. The thermally activated cooling systems include the absorption chillers, adsorption chillers, solid and liquid desiccants dehumidifier, and ejector refrigeration
