Numerical investigation and optimization of a novel hybrid solar chimney for air pollution mitigation and clean electricity generation

With the increasing energy demands and environmental concerns, more attention is paid to sustainable and renewable energy solutions. This work proposes a hybrid filter-equipped solar chimney power plant to purify the outdoor air and generate electricity simultaneously. A two-dimensional numerical model that incorporates the filter model, the turbine model, and a two-band radiation model is developed to study and optimize the per-formance of the novel system. Both chimney and filter models are validated with numerical and experimental data from the literature. The impact of the air filter on the thermal performance and fluid flow characteristics is investigated by varying the weather parameters. Moreover, multi-objective optimization of the filter position is carried out using response surface methodology. The findings indicated that placing the air filter closer to the collector inlet gives the best configuration. The results of a case study in Sharjah showed that the optimized hybrid filter-equipped solar chimney could produce around 28.3 kW of electricity while purifying the outdoor air at a rate of 447.6 m3/s. The proposed hybrid system has comparable capabilities to uncombined systems with only 6 % power reduction and less than 35 % of clean air at higher filter efficiency.

Automated summary

This work proposes a hybrid filter-equipped solar chimney power plant that can purify outdoor air and generate electricity simultaneously. The study found that placing the air filter closer to the collector inlet gives the best configuration. In a case study in Sharjah, the optimized hybrid system could produce around 28.3 kW of electricity while purifying the outdoor air.