Cogeneration of Power and Desalination Using Concentrated Photovoltaic/Thermal Humidification and Dehumidification System

Abstract

In the present work, a mathematical modeling of concentrated photovoltaic/thermal humidification and dehumidification (CPV/T-HDH) desalination plant has been modeled and presented to estimate the performance of the plant. A concentrating photovoltaic thermal is a type of photovoltaic technology which generates electricity and useful thermal energy form high-intensity sunlight focused by lenses and curved mirrors. The efficiency of PV panel drops with increase in cell temperature. In order to maintain the cell temperature at an optimum level, the excess heat or thermal energy was recovered by circulating water. The recovered heat energy was used in humidification and dehumidification desalination plant to generate distilled water from seawater. The performance of plant was analyzed for various solar radiation values (800 W/m2, 900 W/m2, and 1000 W/m2) in terms of cell temperature, PV efficiency, hot water temperature, electricity generation, distilled water production, gained output ratio (GOR), and energy utilization factor (EUF) of the plant. The coolant water flow rate in PV panel was varied from 300 kg/h to 400 kg/h at each solar radiation level. The work is aimed to make use of process integration to optimize the existing system performance. The highest overall efficiency of the CPV/T system is 88.40%. The optimum operating condition of the plant is 800 W/m2 and 300 kg/h. The plant EUF and GOR at optimum operating condition are 0.1593 and 3.01, respectively.