Proposal and evaluation of a solar‐based polygeneration system: Development, exergoeconomic analysis, and multi‐objective optimization
Saeid Azizi, Navid Nedaei, Mortaza Yari
Abstract
Summary This article reviews a novel poly‐generation system based on a solar power tower for power generation, cooling capacity, freshwater creation, and hydrogen production. Comprehensive thermodynamic assessments are conducted to determine the performance of the proposed model. At basic operating circumstances, the simulation results in the generation of 7.871 MW of electricity, 10.05 kg/s of drinking water, 8.788 MW cooling capacity, and hydrogen at a rate of 0.2445 kg/h accompanied by 41.18% energy efficiency and a sum unit cost of products of 6.583 $/GJ. Then, parametric research is going to determine the influence of the proposed system's primary parameters on its performance. Additionally, the gray wolf optimization technique is used to optimize the exergetic efficiency with sum unit cost products and freshwater rate of production under various multi‐objective optimization situations. The first optimization scenario's results indicate that the 53.06% exergetic efficiency and 5.44 $/GJ sum unit cost products are the optimum point, and in the second optimization scenario, the optimum point is 47.64% exergetic efficiency and 9.61 kg/s freshwater production rate. Finally, the performance of the suggested method is demonstrated using a case study of New York, United States of America, and represented the maximum performance in July with 5.2 MW net power and 39.6% exergetic efficiency.