Thermodynamic assessment of a novel solar powered trigeneration system for combined power generation, heating, and cooling

Abstract

Solar power tower (SPT) technology is the mature technology among the various concentrated solar technologies for energy generation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the efficient energy generation system that utilizes the SPT plant. In the current study, a novel trigeneration system was presented to utilize the SPT for combined power generation, heating, and cooling. The trigeneration system consists a helium Brayton cycle and organic Rankine cycle (ORC) with ejector refrigeration system for recovering the waste heat. The power was produced by the helium Brayton cycle and ORC turbine whereas, cooling and heating was produced simultaneously by the condenser and evaporator respectively. For building applications such as hospitals and hostels, the heating and cooling effects were generated at 50°C and 10°C respectively. Finally, the optimal system exhibits exergy and energy efficiency of 25.12% and 23.3%, respectively, when all the studied parameters are taken into consideration. Apart from this power output, heating and cooling productions were observed as 14,998, 60.52 and 8.25 kW and respectively at the 2.3 of compressor pressure ratio, 197.2°C of inlet temperature of ORC turbine.