Parametric analysis of solar-assisted trigeneration system based on energy and exergy analyses

Abstract

Rapid deterioration of environment has led researchers to explore feasible forms of energy which could produce multiple energy forms with minimum inputs. Hence, in this study a nov-el trigeneration setup is explored so as to achieve simultaneous forms of energy in the form of electrical energy, heating and cooling, driving its primary energy requirements through a solar power tower. Molten salt is used in this study to transfer the heat from the solar component to the vapor absorption apparatus. Further the vapor absorption system is tested for thermody-namic performance for a couple of refrigerants (LiNO3-H2O and LiBr-H2O), so as to establish the Pareto-optimal fluid among them. In order to remove any adherent error in the measuring procedure, all equipment’s uncertainty analysis was performed which was negligibly small approximately at 5.34 % in terms of power plant efficiencies. An exact analysis was performed so as to estimate energy and exergy in efficiencies in the equipment while varying input pa-rameters. Zenith exergy destruction was achieved in 33.6% by the central receiver, followed by 24.9% by heliostat, and 7.8% in heat recovery steam generator. The highest energy and exergy efficiencies (62.6% and 20.6%) are attained on system working on LiBr-H2O, whereas (60.9% and 19.6%) were obtained in LiNO3-H2O operated system.