Abstract
The aim of the paper is the techno-economic analysis of innovative integrated combined heat and power (CHP) systems for the exploitation of different renewable sources in the residential sector. To this purpose, a biofuel-driven organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is combined with a wind turbine, a photovoltaic system and an auxiliary boiler. The subsystems work in parallel to satisfy the electric and heat demand of final users: a block of 40 dwellings in a smart community. A 12.6 kWel ORC is selected according to a thermal-driven strategy, while wind and solar subsystems are introduced to increase the global system efficiency and the electric self-consumption. The ORC can be switched-off or operated at partial load when solar and/or wind sources are significant. A multi-variable optimization has been carried out to find the proper size of the wind turbine and photovoltaic subsystems and to define the suitable operating strategy. To this purpose, several production wind turbines (1.0–60.0 kWel) and photovoltaic units (0.3–63.0 kWel) have been considered with the aim of finding the optimal trade-off between the maximum electric self-consumption and the minimum payback period and electric surplus. The multi-objective optimization suggests the integration of 12.6 kWel ORC with 10 kWel wind turbine and 6.3 kWel photovoltaic subsystem. The investigation demonstrates that the proposed multi-source integrated system offers a viable solution for smart-communities and distributed energy production with a significant improvement in the global system efficiency (+7.5%) and self-consumption (+15.0%) compared to the sole ORC apparatus.
Highlights
In order to overcome today’s sustainability and environmental concerns, multi-source integrated energy systems for combined heat and power generation (CHP) are considered a technical solution capable of increasing flexibility, decentralized generation [1,2], global efficiency and reducing fuel consumptions and emissions [3,4,5]
The system consists of a biodiesel-driven organic Rankine cycle (ORC) that operates according to a thermal-driven operating strategy
The integrated apparatus consists of a biodiesel-fired organic Rankine cycle (ORC), a photovoltaic unit (PV) and a wind turbine (WT)
Summary
In order to overcome today’s sustainability and environmental concerns, multi-source integrated energy systems for combined heat and power generation (CHP) are considered a technical solution capable of increasing flexibility, decentralized generation [1,2], global efficiency and reducing fuel consumptions and emissions [3,4,5]. The main goal is finding the proper size of each technology considering both cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency, as well as the proper operating strategies [9,10,11,12,13,14]. To this purpose, different optimization procedures to define the proper system configuration and operation have been proposed in the last few years based both on single and multi-objective optimization [15,16,17,18,19]. Bellos and Tzivanidis [23] compared single, bi and three-objects criteria to define the optimal design of a solar driven trigeneration system for building applications
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