Performance analysis of a solar based waste to energy multigeneration system

Abstract

In this study, a solar-powered waste-to-energy multigeneration system is designed to produce various useful outputs, such as hydrogen, ethanol, heating, cooling and power generation, for a sustainable community is developed and analyzed in addition a comprehensive performance assessment. In this regard, thermodynamic analyses using both energy and exergy approaches are conducted to study and examine the effects of system and operation parameters, such as steam feed rate and gasification temperature on the system performance and investigate possible improvements in the amounts of ethanol and hydrogen produced. The present system utilizes the solar tower as a renewable energy source to produce energy and steam. This steam and animal manure are used as a gasification agent for hydrogen and ethanol generation at the gasification unit. The other objective of this study is to investigate the impact of changing system properties and operating conditions to maximize hydrogen and ethanol production as well as energy and exergy efficiency while minimizing detrimental syngas by conducting several parametric studies in a renewable energy-based multigeneration system. Furthermore, a molten salt storage system is available to minimize energy imbalances originating from renewable solar energy. The gas-steam combined cycle in the rest of the system aims to meet the community’s electricity and heating needs. In the last stage, the cooling required by the community is provided by a vapor absorption cooling system. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies are found as 61.1% and 56.4%, respectively.