Economic and Environmental Analyses of an Integrated Power and Hydrogen Production Systems Based on Solar Thermal Energy

Abstract

This study introduces a novel hybrid solar–biomass cogeneration power plant that efficiently produces heat, electricity, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen using concentrated solar power and syngas from cotton stalk biomass. Detailed exergy-based thermodynamic, economic, and environmental analyses demonstrate that the optimized system achieves an exergy efficiency of 48.67% and an exergoeconomic factor of 80.65% and produces 51.5 MW of electricity, 23.3 MW of heat, and 8334.4 kg/h of hydrogen from 87,156.4 kg/h of biomass. The study explores four scenarios for green hydrogen production pathways, including chemical looping reforming and supercritical water gasification, highlighting significant improvements in levelized costs and the environmental impact compared with other solar-based hybrid systems. Systems 2 and 3 exhibit superior performance, with levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) of 49.2 USD/MWh and 55.4 USD/MWh and levelized costs of hydrogen (LCOH) of between 10.7 and 19.5 USD/MWh. The exergoenvironmental impact factor ranges from 66.2% to 73.9%, with an environmental impact rate of 5.4–7.1 Pts/MWh. Despite high irreversibility challenges, the integration of solar energy significantly enhances the system’s exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental performance, making it a promising alternative as fossil fuel reserves decline. To improve competitiveness, addressing process efficiency and cost reduction in solar concentrators and receivers is crucial.