Sustainable system development for efficient management of waste tires through gasification and solar energy for useful outputs: A thermodynamic analysis

Abstract

In this study, a solar based integrated waste tires gasification system with desalination is developed, and the respective analyses of this system are performed for multiple useful outputs, including electricity, hydrogen, fresh water as well as heat provided to the community. The thermodynamic assessment of this system is performed by using energy and exergy analyses. Moreover, both energy analysis and exergy analysis are performed for essentially investigating and evaluating the performance of the overall system. Moreover, analyses of the effects of varying operating conditions on the subsystems’ efficiencies are carried out. Both Aspen Plus and Engineering Equation Solver software packages are used for thermodynamic analyses and simulations. In this integrated system, solar energy is the prime source and utilized for producing steam. This study aims to bring up a unique solution for better resources management and sustainability. Furthermore, the waste tires are gasified to produce syngas in the designed system where both Rankine and Brayton cycles are utilized for producing electricity and heat. In addition to this, excess heat is transferred to the desalination system for producing fresh water. For improving the overall system performance, some parametric studies are performed to investigate both energy and exergy efficiencies. The energy efficiency of the integrated system is therefore calculated as 38.9 % while the exergy efficiency of this system is found to be 34.6 %. For the developed system, electricity generation and amount of heating are also calculated as 58.65 MW and 7.35 MW respectively. Moreover, the hydrogen and freshwater production capacities are determined to be 0.75 kg/s and 355.40 kg/s respectively.