Assessment and optimization of a new sextuple energy system incorporated with concentrated photovoltaic thermal - Geothermal using exergy, economic and environmental concepts

This research presents a thermodynamic, economic and environmental impact assessments of a new renewable based sextuple system made up of an organic Rankine cycle, magnetic refrigeration cycle, proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, date dryer unit and concentrated photovoltaic thermal collectors delivering power electricity, cooling and heating effects, hydrogen, oxygen and dried date productions. The impacts of the substantial design parameters on the annual thermal and exergy efficiencies, total product cost and environmental impact rates are evaluated. From parametric analysis, PEM electrolyzer current density affects the product cost rate of the system less than other parameters within 3.05% and turbine inlet pressure yields the reduction in the total product environmental impact rate by about 3.8%. Moreover, an elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm and LINMAP decision maker are employed to identify the final optimum answer of the desired system. From optimization outcomes, the optimum performance of the system shows 18.3% reduction for cost and 24.9% improvement for environmental impact criteria. The annual thermal efficiency is improved about 27.4% and annual exergy efficiency gets 2.12 times. Under the optimum conditions, the isobutane mass flow rate reaches the maximum value of 35 kg/s and net power output increases within 50.25% in relation to the base point.