Applying geothermal and solar energies for the thermodynamic estimation of the multigeneration system’s performance in producing power, freshwater and hydrogen

Abstract

The evaluation in the study includes assessing the energy and exergy of a novel system capable of producing cooling, heat, electricity, hot water, hydrogen, and desalinated water simultaneously. This groundbreaking system utilizes solar and geothermal energy and consists of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, reverse osmosis (RO) desalination unit, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), an absorption refrigeration cycle, and a domestic water heater. The EES software was used to perform all the analyses. An examination of the proposed system was carried out, considering both energy and exergy aspects. The results indicate that the solar collector undergoes the most exergy destruction when examined. As the volume concentration of nanoparticles increases, the turbine's power production increases, while the thermoelectric generator's (TEG) power generation decreases. The solar collector's useful energy increases with higher solar irradiation but decreases as the nanoparticle percentage rises. The turbine and TEG unit produce more power when exposed to greater solar irradiation, resulting in higher rates of freshwater and hydrogen production.