Advancing energy transition with novel biomass-solar based multigeneration energy system using hydrogen and storage options for sustainable cities

Abstract

An integrated energy system is designed to produce various useful products, such as hydrogen, electricity, heat and cooling. This integrated plant utilizes various subsystems; solar power system, biomass energy system, steam Rankine cycle (SRC), Brayton cycle (BC), organic Rankine cycle (ORC), double-effect absorption system (DEAS), reverse osmosis system, and sonohydrogen production unit. The specific energetic, exergetic, economic and environmental impact assessment studies are carried out to evaluate the system's performance and sustainability. The engineering equation solver (EES) is used for these studies. The energy efficiencies for the BC, ORC and SRC are recorded as 29.69 %, 10.49 %, and 30 %, respectively. In regard to exergy efficiency, the BC, ORC and SRC achieve the following: 46.74 %, 62.73 %, and 53.43 %, respectively. Furthermore, the DEAS attains energetic and exergetic COPs of 1.67 and 0.65, respectively. Additionally, the overall system's energy and exergy efficiencies are found to be 37.68 % and 71.25 %, respectively. The results from the thermal energy storage system indicate that the heat production begins at 7:00 a.m., and the charging of the storage unit commences two hours after and continues until 5:00 p.m., in coinciding with the availability of sunlight. The economic analysis demonstrates that with an initial investment of $53.80 million, the integrated multigeneration system achieves a net present value ranging from $6.87 million to $173.4 million across different hydrogen selling prices, from $7000 to $13,000 per ton up to 2054.