Performance enhancement of packed bed thermal energy storage system for solar cogeneration of power and potable water production

Abstract

Solar integrated combined organic ranking cycle and multi-stage desalination with packed bed thermal energy storage is proposed, and thermo-economic-environmentally analyzed for residential areas to increase the self-sustainability. The designed system has produced power and potable water of 118.51 kWe and 74.03 kg/day without energy storage. Significantly, Marble and Quartzite are the best and worst materials from the collected material, it is identified by the proposed novel combination of ITARA-TOPSIS-MODM method in Matlab. Especially, the performance of the energy storage is analyzed in Local Thermal Non-Equilibrium (LTNE) – Ansys 18.1 domain. The thin thermocline was obtained for the smallest diameter (d = 0.03m) of filler material with the lowest porosity (ε ≤ 0.3). The Stanton Number (St), Porosity (ε), and Radius (D/r) are found to be the most influential term for the storage process among eight non-dimensional parameters. The overall exergy destruction rate is found to be 37.80 kW, which is nearly 41.17% of irreversibility that occurred in the trough collector as a primary component of exergy wasting. Moreover, the energetic and exergetic efficiency of the storage adopted combined system was found as 79.38% and 34.82%, nearly 23.91% and 6.96% higher than without an energy storage system. The adoption of energy storage increased power output to 222.30 kWe, and potable water production to 202.51 kg/day, which is nearly 1.5 and 2.73 times more than the conventional system. Furthermore, the energy storage has drastically reduced the payback period from 4.61 years to 2.31 years at the cost of power, and potable water is Rs.6.54/kWe and Rs.4/litre. Finally, the annual reduction of the CO2 pollutant was found as 92.95 metric tons, and the corresponding annual and lifetime social cost is found as Rs.6.06 Lakhs and Rs.90.64 Lakhs. The designed small-sized combined system may be suitable for hospitals, institutional buildings, hotels, and offices.