Thermodynamic evaluation of a novel geothermal and solar-driven multigeneration system for hydrogen and freshwater production

Abstract

In this study, a novel multigeneration cycle including PTC and geothermal as the main energy sources and Kalina and ORC cycles as the main power production cycles have been proposed and analyzed from energy and exergy point of view. The effect of important parameters including solar irradiation, collector inlet temperature, collector volumetric flow, environment temperature, and geothermal temperature on the amount of the hydrogen production rate, freshwater production rate, and system efficiency have been investigated. The results show that the energy and exergy efficiency of the proposed system is 35.75 % and 18.39 %, respectively. Moreover, the total power produced by the system is obtained to be 1545 kW, the amount of hydrogen produced is 0.001175 g/s and the freshwater production rate is 5.216 kg/s. Furthermore, the results indicated that increasing geothermal temperature and solar collector inlet volumetric flow, increase hydrogen production rate and solar irradiation and environment temperature have no effects on the hydrogen production rate of the cycle. Finally, it is found that geothermal temperature increase and collector volumetric flow show an optimum point for thermal efficiency and freshwater, respectively.

Keywords

• energy and exergy analysis
• ptc
• geothermal
• pem electrolyzer
• hydrogen production