Energy Plants Research Articles

인도 쓰레기매립지의 환경문제에 관한 법적 해결 방안에 대한 연구

This paper considers the environmental disputes caused by the landfills located in Delhi, India and reviews the Indian Waste-to-Energy policy to resolve the environmental conflicts. India has sound waste management rules and regulations but they are not implemented effectively. Even though the Indian government has applied current Indian environmental policies, such as municipal solid waste rule, it could not properly resolve these disputes based on a lack of administrative will-power. India being the world’s second most populous country generates an enormous amount of garbage. While the waste generated is not managed effectively, it might lead to deterioration of human health and the environment. The waste is usually dumped in Landfills. However, these landfills are poorly managed, and the waste keeps overflowing. Numerous Landfills have led to fire around the locality, and they are a source of nuisance to the neighbourhood. One of the possible solutions could be using waste to energy plants. Waste-to-energy plants use state of the art technology to incinerate the garbage to produce energy. Waste could be used to produce clean energy and could curb pollution. However, the application of thermal technology for waste-to-energy in India is not well controlled because the cost of using crude oil is much cheaper than the expense of applying waste-to-energy technology in India. One of the possible remedies could be under statutory nuisance which would compel the regulatory authorities to protect the human health and the environment.

A Framework for Assessing Nuclear Terrorism Threats in Bangladesh

We live in a world where thousands of nuclear weapons exist. Many countries and even terrorist organizations want to acquire nuclear weapons. The ambiguous and transnational nature of terrorist organizations challenges the national security of many states. Bangladesh is a small and densely populated country with a nuclear energy plant. Although Bangladesh has a nuclear energy policy, it has no atomic security policy or legal framework. The dearth of military capabilities, administrative facilities, and human resources with proper skills and experiences makes Bangladesh vulnerable to nuclear terrorist attacks. This research aims to build a framework that would be useful in assessing the security threats from the likelihood of nuclear terrorism in a country like Bangladesh. This nuclear security assessment framework could be useful in assessing security threats from nuclear terrorism in non-nuclear-weapon countries.

Using Sweet Sorghum Varieties for the Phytoremediation of Petroleum-Contaminated Salinized Soil: A Preliminary Study Based on Pot Experiments

Using energy plants to repair salinized soils polluted by petroleum is an efficient way to solve the problem of farmland reduction and prevent pollutants from entering the food chain simultaneously. In this study, pot experiments were conducted for the purposes of preliminarily discussing the potential of using an energy plant, sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), to repair petroleum-polluted salinized soils and obtain associated varieties with excellent remediation performance. The emergence rate, plant height and biomass of different varieties were measured to explore the performance of plants under petroleum pollution, and the removal of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil with candidate varieties was also studied. The results showed that the emergence rate of 24 of the 28 varieties were not reduced by the addition of 1.0 × 104 mg/kg petroleum in soils with a salinity of 0.31%. After a 40-day treatment in salinized soil with petroleum additions of 1.0 × 104 mg/kg, 4 potential well-performed varieties including Zhong Ketian No. 438, Ke Tian No. 24, Ke Tian No. 21 (KT21) and Ke Tian No. 6 with a plant height of >40 cm and dry weight of >4 g were screened. Obvious removal of petroleum hydrocarbons in the salinized soils planted with the four varieties were observed. Compared with the treatment without plants, the residual petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations in soils planted with KT21 decreased by 69.3%, 46.3%, 56.5%, 50.9% and 41.4%, for the additions of 0, 0.5 × 104, 1.0 × 104, 1.5 × 104 and 2.0 × 104 mg/kg, respectively. In general, KT21 had the best performance and application potential to remediate petroleum-polluted salinized soil.

Holistic management of a smart city thermal energy plant with sewage heat pumps, solar heating, and grey water recycling

This article introduces a modern thermal energy plant consisting of sewage heat pumps, a biogas boiler, thermal solar collectors, and grey water recycling. It further discusses advanced methods to achieve energy efficiency in the plant operation. The project is a collaboration between the industrial plant designer, the municipal plant owner, and the local academic institution. The article presents the framework for the collaboration. The overall target is to investigate how the experience and competence of the three partners can lead to improved operation using data-driven methods and optimization strategies. The industrial partner can closely follow up on its design and increase its knowledge of artificial intelligence and data-driven methods. The municipal partner is given a “free-of-charge” system review. New knowledge and reduced life cycle costs and emissions are possible outcomes. The academic partner gets access to a “living green laboratory,” a unique dataset, and the opportunity to validate developed models and optimization strategies. The plant represents the state-of-the-art for a medium scaled, local thermal energy production system in an existing building cluster. The design energy and emission targets are presented and compared to the operational results. Though the municipal partner can report good agreement between targets and results, an evaluation of the day-to-day operation identified practical examples of system conditions that Artificial Intelligence may improve. The article concludes with a description of plans for future work and a broader discussion of the impacts of introducing data-driven methods to real-life systems.

Mechanistic assessment reveals the significance of HRT and MLSS concentration in balancing carbon diversion and removal in the A-stage process

Nowadays, the shift toward energy and resource-efficient wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has become a necessity rather than a choice. For this purpose, there has been a restored interest in replacing the typical energy and resource-extensive activated sludge process with the two-stage Adsorption/bio-oxidation (A/B) configuration. In the A/B configuration, the role of the A-stage process is to maximize organics diversion to the solids stream and control the following B-stage's influent to allow for the attainment of tangible energy savings. Operating at very short retention times and high loading rates, the influence of the operational conditions on the A-stage process become more tangible than typical activated sludge. Nonetheless, there is very limited understanding of the influence of operational parameters on the A-stage process. Moreover, no studies in the literature have explored the influence of any operational/design parameters on the Alternating Activated Adsorption (AAA) technology which is a novel A-stage variant. Hence, this article mechanistically investigates the independent effect of different operational parameters on the AAA technology. It was inferred that solids retention time (SRT) shall remain below 1 day to allow for energy savings up to 45% and redirecting up to 46% of the influent's COD to the recovery streams. In the meantime, the hydraulic retention time (HRT) can be increased up to 4 h to remove up to 75% of the influent's COD with only 19% decline of the system's COD redirection ability. Moreover, it was observed that the high biomass concentration (above 3000 mg/L) amplified the effect of the sludge poor settleability either due to pin floc settling or high SVI30 which resulted in COD removal below 60%. Meanwhile, the concentration of the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) was not found to be influenced or to influence process performance. The findings of this study can be employed to formulate an integrative operational approach in which different operational parameters are incorporated to better control the A-stage process and achieve complex objectives.

The net economic benefits of power plants: International evidence

Using unique emissions data and prices for carbon dioxide (CO2), this study examines whether the economic benefits of electricity consumption outweigh the environmental cost. Our dataset consists of power plants from 33 countries between 2007 and 2018. We also investigate the net benefits of renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, and hydropower. We find that more environmentally friendly energy has lower CO2 emissions costs and raises electricity consumption. In addition, renewable and nuclear power plants have more economic benefits than thermal ones. All three renewable energy sources have lower CO2 emissions costs and more economic benefits than thermal energy. We also find that the benefit-cost ratio is at least 30 times higher for nuclear and renewable energy than for thermal energy. Our results show that, among the various types of renewable energy, wind and solar power plants show the highest benefit-cost ratio, despite having higher initial investment costs. Our study provides important insights for policy makers that can help them understand the net benefit of various types of power plants and implement appropriate policies and regulations to encourage the use of renewable energy sources as part of achieving their climate change agenda.

The value of diurnal and seasonal energy storage in baseload renewable energy systems: A case study of Ras Ghareb – Egypt

In the current work, a model has been developed using MATLAB along with artificial neural network (ANN) to optimally configure a hybrid renewable energy plant. This enabled to use a group of professional software for the design of the plant, and meanwhile conduct an optimization study for the plant configuration. The proposed plant is capable of producing a steady output to the grid at the least Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), with minimum Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP) and excess energy. The plant consists of a wind farm, a solar PV plant, and a storage section containing Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB) and hydrogen generation and storage system for running a Fuel Cell. Ras Ghareb site in Egypt is selected to prove the concept of the hybrid plant based on its favoured solar and wind resources and their complementarity. It has been found that the optimized hybrid combination of a baseload plant of an accredited capacity 200 MW will have 89 % of its output of electricity from direct renewable resources (Wind and PV), 8 % from FC, and 3 % from VRFB. The economic indicators show that the LCOE will be 0.0897$/kWh, at Zero LPSP and Zero Excess energy above the accredited capacity. Relaxing the LPSP by 1 % reduces the system total capital expenditure (CAPEX), and hence, the LCOE by 18.6 % down to 0.073 $/kWh. Seasonal storage has a great effect on the system's steady output and reliability, as both wind and PV potential are less in winter at the selected site. In addition, seasonal energy storage is the major cost driver in the hybrid system, causing baseload generation cost to exceed the conventional thermal baseload units, despite being cheaper than concentrated solar power (CSP). Hydrogen storage is favoured over batteries for seasonal storage due to its advantage for long term storage at relatively lower specific cost.

Renewable energy resource assessment for rural electrification: a case study in Nepal

Abstract Renewable energy could mitigate remote area energy crises through rural electrification. Karnali province, one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal, is such a remote location and is most deprived in terms of electricity access. Around 67% of the population of the Karnali province is not connected to the national grid electricity supply. High altitude, mountainous topography makes it difficult to provide grid access to the region. This study summarizes the current electricity access status in Nepal and Karnali province specifically. The paper discusses the energy, economic and environmental (3E) analysis of different renewable energy resources like solar and wind energy for the grid-isolated region in Mugu and Jumla district of Karnali province. The study investigates the feasibility of a 200-kW solar power plant installation in Gamghadi, the capital of Mugu district and a 100-kW wind power plant installation in Tila village, Jumla district. The study suggests whether a similar installation of the distributed energy plant is a solution to mitigate the energy crisis problem in the high Himalayas regions, like Karnali province of Nepal. Based on the high-level resource assessment, the study estimates an investment cost ranging from 7 to 9 million USD would be necessary for the installation of such distributed solar PV and wind turbines.

Sorptive removal of phosphorus by flue gas desulfurization gypsum in batch and column systems

Phosphorus (P) over-loading is often a central topic due to its linkage to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and its importance in wastewater treatment that has fueled immediate remediation attempts to reduce P loading from point (e.g., wastewater) and nonpoint sources (e.g., fertilizers). Conventional remediation techniques (e.g., filtration) are often expensive, ineffective, and difficult to implement at large scales. The flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum produced as an energy plant waste byproduct has recently been advocated as a physiochemical remediation strategy for P through sorptive removal. However, limited research is available on the practical applications of FGD gypsum for P removal from water. Herein, batch sorption experiments were performed to investigate the sorptive removal efficiency of P by FGD gypsum under environmentally relevant P concentrations (0.01–0.25 mM). In parallel, fixed-bed column experiments packed with FGD gypsum were performed using elevated P concentrations (0.1–1.0 mM) to understand the scalability of FGD gypsum for large-scale practical applications. During batch experiments, P sorption equilibrium was reached within 24 h that includes an initially fast step (via boundary layer diffusion), followed by a slow rate-determining step (via intraparticle diffusion). P sorption kinetics followed the pseudo second-order kinetics, indicating chemisorption. P sorption at equilibrium can be simulated by both the Freundlich and Langmuir sorption isotherms. The Langmuir sorption isotherm yielded a maximum sorption capacity (Qmax) of 36.1 mM kg−1. The fixed-bed column experimental results showed that sorption rate depends on the applied flow rate, irrespective of the tested P concentrations. Our findings can be extrapolated to evaluate the feasibility and scalability of FGD gypsum in removing P to counteract P runoff and mitigate HABs and P-loaded wastewater.

A Statistical Assessment of Water Availability for Hydropower Generation in the Context of Adequacy Analyses

The increasing presence of non-programmable renewable energy plants increases the intermittency of the electricity supply and thus threatens the adequacy of a power system. Hydropower can solve this problem due to its flexibility. This paper applies statistical approaches to assess water availability in the context of hydropower generation and adequacy analysis on a seasonal basis for one site in Sicily and the other in Sardinia, where major hydroelectric plants are present. First, an empirical relationship between soil moisture content (SMC) and potential evapotranspiration (ET0) is evaluated through linear regression analysis. Then, precipitation trends over the last twenty years are analyzed to determine any effects of global warming on water availability. Finally, Monte Carlo algorithms are used for the stochastic generation of hourly precipitation, direct runoff profiles, and daily SMC profiles. Strong positive and negative correlations between ET0 and SMC (p < 0.05), and R2 ≥ 0.5 are found for both sites, except for summer, and R2 ≥ 0.5 is obtained. The cumulative pH-historical precipitation shows changes in seasonal trends, with evidence of a decrease at the annual level. The algorithms used to synthetically generate hourly precipitation and direct runoff profiles, as well as daily SMC profiles, effectively simulate the statistical variability of the historical profiles of these physical quantities.

Efficient Accumulation of Amylopectin and Its Molecular Mechanism in the Submerged Duckweed Mutant.

Large-scale use of fossil fuels has brought about increasingly serious problems of environmental pollution, development and utilization of renewable energy is one of the effective solutions. Duckweed has the advantages of fast growth, high starch content and no occupation of arable land, so it is a promising starchy energy plant. A new submerged duckweed mutant (sub-1) with abundant starch accumulation was obtained, whose content of amylopectin accounts for 84.04% of the starch granules. Compared with the wild type (Lemna aequinoctialis), the branching degree of starch in sub-1 mutant was significantly increased by 19.6%. Chain length DP 6-12, DP 25-36 and DP > 36 of amylopectin significantly decreased, while chain length DP 13-24 significantly increased. Average chain length of wild-type and sub-1 mutant starches were greater than DP 22. Moreover, the crystal structure and physical properties of starch have changed markedly in sub-1 mutant. For example, the starch crystallinity of sub-1 mutant was only 8.94%, while that of wild-type was 22.3%. Compared with wild type, water solubility of starch was significantly reduced by 29.42%, whereas swelling power significantly increased by 97.07% in sub-1 mutant. In order to further analyze the molecular mechanism of efficient accumulation of amylopectin in sub-1 mutant, metabolome and transcriptome were performed. The results showed that glucose accumulated in sub-1 mutant, then degradation of starch to glucose mainly depends on α-amylase. At night, the down-regulated β-amylase gene resulted in the inhibition of starch degradation. The starch and sucrose metabolism pathways were significantly enriched. Up-regulated expression of SUS, AGPase2, AGPase3, PYG, GPI and GYS provide sufficient substrate for starch synthesis in sub-1 mutant. From the 0H to 16H light treatment, granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS1) gene was inhibited, on the contrary, the starch branching enzyme (SBE) gene was induced. Differential expression of GBSS1 and SBE may be an important reason for the decrease ratio of amylose/amylopectin in sub-1 mutant. Taken together, our results indicated that the sub-1 mutant can accumulate the amylopectin efficiently, potentially through altering the differential expression of AGPase, GBSS1, SBE, and BAM. This study also provides theoretical guidance for creating crop germplasm with high amylopectin by means of synthetic biology in the future.

Sustainable phytoextraction of metal-polluted agricultural land used for commercial photovoltaic power generation

Metal pollution of agricultural soils is currently an issue of major concern in China and many soils require remediation. Photovoltaic (PV) power generation is a useful source of renewable energy but solar power plants often require large areas of land. Combining PV power generation with phytoextraction on contaminated arable land is therefore a novel and potential option if these processes can work effectively together. A three-year-long continuous field study was conducted to test the feasibility of phytoextraction using a metal hyperaccumulator species growing under arrays of PV panels. Meteorological data were collected and the growth and cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) uptake of the Cd/Zn hyperaccumulator Sedum plumbizincicola were determined. Shading by the PV panels reduced the annual solar irradiance by 58.4% but this showed no inhibitory effect on plant growth or metal uptake by S. plumbizincicola. Phytoextraction under the PV panels gave high removal efficiencies of Cd and Zn and the hyperaccumulator took up Cd and Zn at rates of 3.40 and 96.2 kg ha−1, respectively, for three seasons. It is concluded that soil phytoextraction and PV electricity generation can be combined to realize soil remediation and energy production.

ISO 50001 Data Driven Methods for Energy Efficiency Analysis of Thermal Power Plants

This paper proposes an energy management system based on an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to be integrated with the standard ISO 50001 and aims to describe the definition and the enhancement of the energy baselines by means of artificial intelligence techniques applied and tested on the real electrical absorption data of the auxiliary units of different thermal power plants in Italy. Power plant optimized operations are important both for cost and energy performance reasons with related effects on the environment in the next future energy transition scenario. The improvement of the energy baselines consists in determining more accurate consumption monitoring models that are able to track inefficiencies and absorption drifts through data analytics and Artificial Intelligence. Starting from the analysis of the energy vectors at the production site level, we performed a multi-scale analysis to define the consumption at macro areas level and finally find the most relevant consumption units within the plants. A comparison of different ANNs applied to several real power plant data was performed to model complex plant architecture and optimize energy savings with respect to pre-set thresholds according to the ISO 50001 standard procedure. The energy baselines are determined through the analysis of the data available in the power plants’ Distributed Control System (DCS), and we can identify the consumption derived from the unit’s proper operation. Based on the reported numerical simulations, improved baselines have been reached up to a 5% threshold for different plant sub-units, thus representing a relevant overall saving in terms of alert threshold definition and related control efficiency: a potential saving of about 140 MWh throughout the considered three-year dataset was obtained taking into account a cooling tower sub-unit, representing a considerable economic benefit. The results obtained highlight the neural technique efficiency in defining more accurate energy baselines and represents a valuable tool for large energy plant asset management to face relevant energy drifts observed in the last years of plant operation.

Stability Control of Frequency and Voltage in Wind Power Plant Using Complementary Load with Pid Control, Pwm and Thingspeak Monitor

Utilization of wind energy (wind) that blows from a certain height which is then used to turn wind turbines and converted into electrical energy or so-called wind power plants (PLTB) is one solution to the problem of the energy crisis so far. In addition, voltage stability is very necessary in the continuity of the use of power plants. Unstable voltage and frequency make electrical equipment (load) easily damaged. There are various ways to reduce instability, one of which is using a pseudo/complementary load electronic control circuit. The point is that the generator will be loaded with a total load that is always constant, the load on the consumer plus the complementary (pseudo) load is equal to the nominal capacity of the generator. This research uses a 3 phase generator and a 3 phase induction motor as a driving machine, the main load uses a lamp and the pseudo load uses a heater. The main control uses a Dspic30f4012 microcontroller connected to a voltage sensor. The microcontroller works using PWM with feedback using PID, which then PWM provides pulse information to the load drive circuit. The use of PID in this control system will produce a voltage in the generator at 50 Hz and 220Vac whether there is a load or not. So that the voltage supplied to consumers is stable and does not damage electronic equipment.

New Environmental Controversies: Towards a Typology of Green Conflicts

As the ecological crisis deepen, new environmental controversies emerge. Whereas traditional environmental conflicts mostly concern socio-economic interests clashing with environmental protection, recent conflicts are increasingly pitting different environmental considerations against each other. These green conflicts have received scattered attention in the scholarly literature, mostly in the form of case studies in relation to renewable energy plants, such as wind turbines and solar panels. However, there is a need for more systematic approaches to conceptualize the green conflicts. This article embarks on that task by developing a typology of green conflicts as they appear in public discourse and mediated communication. We test the model on public debates on four different topics: national parks, organic farming, wind turbines, and nuclear energy. Our data suggests that green conflicts can increasingly be found across a wide range of environmental and climate change issues. However, green conflicts are not simply replacing traditional environmental conflicts, but are rather adding new layers to environmental controversies by reconfiguring conflict lines, actor positions, spatial scales, and temporalities.

DFT Study on the Enhancement of Isobaric Specific Heat of GaN and InN Nanosheets for Use as Nanofluids in Solar Energy Plants.

In this work, GaN and InN nanosheets with dodecylamine (DDA) as surfactant have been studied as nanofluids to be used in solar plants. The interactions between the sheets and the surfactants have been performed using density functional theory. The most favorable interaction site on the surface corresponds to the metallic atom of the sheet with the N atom of the surfactant. In this interaction, the pair of electrons of N from the surfactant with the metal atom of the sheet play a stabilizing role, which is corroborated by electron localization function (ELF), quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), and density of states (DOS) analysis. The isobaric specific heat values for the most favorable interaction were obtained in the presence of water, ethylene glycol, and diphenyl oxide as solvents for the first time. The highest value corresponds to systems with diphenyl oxide, being the values obtained of 0.644 J/gK and 0.363 J/gK for GaN-DDA and InN-DDA systems, respectively. These results open the possibilities of using GaN-DDA and InN-DDA systems in solar energy applications.

Development of energy plants from hybrids between Miscanthus sacchariflorus and M. lutarioriparius grown on reclaimed mine land in the Loess Plateau of China.

Miscanthus, a promising bioenergy plant, has a high biomass yield with high cellulose content suitable for biofuel production. However, harsh climatic and poor soil conditions, such as barren lands or abandoned mines, pose a challenge to the survival and yield of Miscanthus feedstock on the marginal land. The selection from the interspecific hybrids of Miscanthus might combine high survival rates and high yield, which benefits energy crop development in multi-stressful environments. A total of 113 F1 hybrids between Miscanthus sacchariflorus and M. lutarioriparius together with the parents were planted and evaluated for multiple morphological and physiological traits on the mine land of the Loess Plateau of China. The majority of hybrids had higher establishment rates than M. sacchariflorus while M. lutarioriparius failed to survive for the first winter. Nearly all hybrid genotypes outperformed M. lutarioriparius for yield-related traits including plant height, tiller number, tiller diameter, and leaf area. The average biomass of the hybrids was 20 times higher than that of surviving parent, M. sacchariflorus. Furthermore, the photosynthetic rates and water use efficiency of the hybrids were both significantly higher than those of the parents, which might be partly responsible for their higher yield. A total of 29 hybrids with outstanding traits related to yield and stress tolerance were identified as candidates. The study investigated for the first time the hybrids between local individuals of M. sacchariflorus and high-biomass M. lutarioriparius, suggesting that this could be an effective approach for high-yield energy crop development on vast of marginal lands.

Multi-objective optimization and 4E analysis of an integrated system based on waste-to-energy, solar PV, power-to-gas, and HDH-RO desalination

Waste-to-energy technology is among the most important parts of a sustainable waste management system nowadays. By adding a renewable source of electricity (solar photovoltaics) and power to gas (proton exchange membrane electrolyzer and the Sabatier reactor) to convert CO2, the environmental problems of waste to energy plants (here incineration and landfill) can be tackled. To solve freshwater scarcity issues, two desalination units (reverse osmosis and humidification and dehumidification) are added to the system. The main novelty of this study is to produce beneficial outputs from municipal solid waste and solar energy. The system is analysed comprehensively from energy, exergy, economic, and environmental viewpoints. The energy and exergy efficiency of the system is 17.48 % and 15.15 %, respectively, and the net power production is 8.42 MW. From economic and environmental points of view, the total annual cost is €12.12 million and CO2 conversion is 99.96 %. The parametric study is conducted on the effect of important parameters. Furthermore, multi-objective optimization is performed by using a genetic algorithm with the objectives of maximizing exergy efficiency and minimizing total annual cost. The optimum solution provides the exergy efficiency of 20.70 % with the total annual cost of €12.75 million.

Optimal Modeling and Feasibility Analysis of Grid-Interfaced Solar PV/Wind/Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Based Hybrid System

Access to inexpensive, clean energy is a key factor in a country’s ability to grow sustainably The production of electricity using fossil fuels contributes significantly to global warming and is becoming less and less profitable nowadays. This work therefore proposes to study the different possible scenarios for the replacement of light fuel oil (LFO) thermal power plants connected to the electrical network in northern Cameroon by renewable energy plants. Several scenarios such as the combination of solar photovoltaic (PV) with a pumped hydro storage system (PHSS), Wind and PHSS and PV-Wind-PHSS have been studied. The selected scenarios are evaluated based on two factors such as the system’s total cost (TC) and the loss of load probability (LOLP). To achieve the results, metaheuristics such the non-dominated sorting whale optimization algorithm (NSWOA) and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) have been applied under MATLAB software. The optimal sizing of the components was done using hourly meteorological data and the hourly power generated by the thermal power plants connected to the electrical grid. Both algorithms provided satisfactory results. However, the total cost in the PV-PHSS, Wind-PHSS, and PV-Wind-PHSS scenarios with NSWOA is, respectively, 1%, 6%, and 0.2% lower than with NSGA-II. According to NSWOA results, the total cost for the PV-Wind-PHSS scenario at LOLP 0% is 4.6% and 17% less than the Wind-PHS and PV-PHSS scenarios, respectively. The profitability study of all three scenarios showed that the project is profitable regardless of the scenario considered.

Optimization and multi-aspect evaluation of a solar/biomass-powered multi-generation plant with an integrated thermoelectric generator unit

A newly hybrid solar/biomass-powered integrated multi-generation plant with a thermoelectric generator unit for supplying multiplex commodities has been studied in the current research. The heat that is obtained from solar energy plus biomass combustion, gives rise to valuable outputs, i.e., power, hydrogen, cooling load, and potable water by an integrated energy plant including a parabolic trough solar collector, a steam Rankine cycle, a combined ejector-absorption chiller unit, a thermoelectric generator unit, a PEM electrolyzer as well as a multi-effect water desalination unit. A comprehensive investigation based on energetic, exergetic, exergo-environmental, and exergo-economic methods has been employed to appraise the plant from the first and second laws of thermodynamics aspects. To acquire the most satisfactory working position in the plant, multi-criteria optimization is accomplished concurrently with the exergetic efficiency maximization plus the cost rate of total product minimization. The outcomes expose that, at the optimum operating position, the plant can touch 15.59% and 1.42 $/s for second law efficiency and the total cost rate of the product, sequentially. The outcome reached from the case study implies performing the plant is more viable economically in the cold months compared to the warmer months.