Development of a waste tires-based integrated energy system for multiple useful outputs in sustainable communities

Abstract

In this study, a geothermal energy-supported integrated gasification system fed with waste tires for multigenerational purposes is developed to generate multiple useful commodities, including ethanol, sulfuric acid, hydrogen, electricity, cooling, and heat to achieve cleaner applications and meet the essential needs of the community in a sustainable manner. A potential application of this conceptually designed system is for a community identified in the Tuscany region of Italy's Larderello field. The proposed system is then analyzed and assessed by utilizing sensitive the thermodynamic simulations and software. The effects of operational and state-related parameters, such as steam, oxygen, waste tire input rate, reference temperature, and gasifier temperature are examined to analyse and evaluate the integrated waste tire gasification system's performance. The present study further aims to determine the effects of varying system parameters and operating circumstances on the ethanol and hydrogen production rates, with the goal of increasing energy and exergy efficiencies while minimizing hazardous wastes and gas emissions. Furthermore, numerous parametric studies on the waste tire-powered multigeneration system are undertaken accordingly. Both Engineering Equation Solver (EES) and Aspen Plus software packages are utilized as potential tools to perform analysis andsimulation studiesfor this system. The proposed system is fed with 10 kg/s of waste tires, and the energy production is supported by using 14.7 kg/s of geothermal spring water. While the net electricity generation, cooling and heating capacities of this system are obtained to be 18752 kW, 49236 kW and 5363 kW, respectively, while the total hydrogen and ethanol production rates within the integrated system are found to be 3.02 kg/s and 0.13 kg/s. The results also show that the waste tire-based integrated gasification system's overall energetic and exergetic efficiencies become 71.45 % and 69.87 %, respectively.