Process development of a solar-assisted multi-production plant: Power, cooling, and hydrogen

Multi-production is a practical approach to boost the efficiency of energy conversion systems by utilizing waste energy to producing more commodities in comparison to conventional single output plants. Solar energy is a vast source of energy that has the potential to be employed for different purposes. Therefore, in this research, a solar-driven multi-production system of power, cooling, and hydrogen generation is proposed and evaluated for being implemented in the city of Bandar-Abbas. The overall system is evaluated by calculating the exergy efficiency and exergy destruction rate of each equipment of the multi-production system. Based on the obtained results, heat exchangers, valves and drums, and splitters monitor to be the most exergy destructive equipment compared to other equipment in the multi-production system. In overall, the designed multi-production system reaches the overall energy efficiency of 90.77% and the overall exergy efficiency of 92.19%. In addition, the coefficient of performance is 0.39 for the absorption refrigeration cycle of the designed multi-production system. In overall, the designed system is able to produce 4.36 MW of electricity, 1.65 MW of cooling load, and 2026 kg/h of hydrogen generation at 80.86 degrees C and 2068 kPa. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.