Developing and optimizing a new cogeneration cycle to produce hydrogen from seawater

Abstract

Global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels have driven countries to develop alternative fuel strategies. As an alternative fuel, hydrogen is very attractive since it has a high thermal energy and near-zero emissions. This paper proposes a new arrangement of the cogeneration cycle for hydrogen production from seawater is proposed and optimized via the multi-objective swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm. In this survey, hydrogen is produced through the electrochemical cycle Copper-Chloride (Cu-Cl), using the heat and electricity provided via waste heat recovery of a gas cycle. A reverse osmosis system provides drinking water for the Cu-Cl cycle. This cycle can produce 256 GWh of electricity and 23616 tons/year of hydrogen during a year. This cycle's first and second law efficiencies are 35.3 % and 7.2 %. Based on the financial aspects, this cycle's investment return time equals 4.1 years. By using MOPSO algorithm, the exergy efficiency of the cogeneration system is improved by 22.7 %, while the payback is decreased by around 33.3 %.