Thermodynamic analysis of a new renewable energy based hybrid system for hydrogen liquefaction

In this paper, a parametric study of the triple effect absorption cooling system (TEACS) integrated with solar photo-voltaic/thermal (PV/T), geothermal, and Linde-Hampson cycle is conducted. The effect of different operating parameters on the COPs, ratio 'n', amount of hydrogen gas pre-cooled, amount of hydrogen liquefied, and utilization factor of the integrated system are studied. It is found that when mass flow rate of air increases the energetic and exergetic COPs decrease in an exponential form from 2.6 to 1.9, and 0.4 to 0.3, respectively. The amounts of hydrogen gas pre-cooled and hydrogen liquefied decrease from 0.39 kg/s to 0.32 kg/s and 0.082 kg/s and 0.066 kg/s, respectively with increase in mass flow rate of air. Moreover, the amounts of hydrogen gas pre-cooled and hydrogen liquefied decrease from 0.42 to 0.27, and 0.088 to 0.066, respectively with increase in mass flow rate of geothermal. In addition, energetic and exergetic utilization factors of integrated system decrease from 0.059 to 0.037, and 0.21 and 0.13, respectively with increase in mass flow rate of geothermal. Copyright (c) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.