Waste heat recovery of a wind turbine for poly-generation purpose: Feasibility analysis, environmental impact assessment, and parametric optimization

Abstract

World energy markets are gradually shifting in favor of wind-based power plants. A decrease in global warming can be attributed to the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels as a result of wind energy. In this regard, utilizing the waste heat from the generator of a wind turbine has recently been considered and only a few studies have been done about it. This shortage has made clear the need for further studies. In the present research, a novel poly-generation system is introduced based on the waste heat recovery of a wind turbine to fill this research gap because the waste energy of a wind turbine has not been utilized for the poly-generation purpose. A novel power-cooling production absorption cycle and a domestic hot water heat exchanger are utilized for this purpose. Also, the produced power in the absorption cycle is sent to a reverse osmosis desalination unit for freshwater production. The considered system is comprehensively studied from energy, exergy, environmental, and exergo-economic standpoints. In the average wind speed of 10 m/s, the exergy efficiency, unit cost of products, reduction in CO2 emission rate, and payback period are seen to be 36.76%, 20.25 $/GJ, 2452801 kg/year, and 2.301 years, which shows its performance is better than the previous studies based on the waste heat recovery of a single wind turbine.