Development and performance assessment of a new integrated solar, wind, and osmotic power system for multigeneration, based on thermodynamic principles

Abstract

This study analyzes a new renewable energy-based multigeneration system, in which the energy sources are efficiently utilized to generate several useful commodities such as hydrogen, oxygen, desalted water, and refrigeration along with electricity. Osmotic power from desalination brine solution is harvested to contribute to the electricity generation and to reduce the environmental impact of brine. The system units are concentrated photovoltaics/thermal (CPVT), wind turbines, thermal energy storage (TES), hydrogen electrolyzer, hydrogen fuel cell, multistage flash (MSF) distillation, vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) cycle, and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO). The energetic and exergetic performance of the overall system, as well as the system units, are calculated based on the first and second law of thermodynamics. Further, a comprehensive parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of varying environmental and operational conditions, and the input parameters on the production rate, exergy destruction rate and efficiencies. For maintaining the high efficiency of CPV operation, the heat generated on photovoltaic (PV) cells is dissipated by an effective cooling system. This heat is then stored in the TES to be further utilized in desalination. The TES is used for eliminating energy fluctuations in the system and for a continuous operation by storing the energy for the time, when energy from the sun is not available. The electricity from CPV and wind power is used in the VCR cycle and hydrogen electrolysis. The fuel cell can be operated during the time of peak electricity demand. After performing thermodynamic analysis over the system, the overall energy and exergy efficiencies are determined as 73.3% and 30.6%, respectively. The exergy destruction rates of the components are specified. In brief, generation of multiple commodities is assured based on a clean operation by a novel integration of multiple clean energy sources in one system.