A theoretical study on a novel solar based integrated system for simultaneous production of cooling and heating

• A novel solar based integrated system for the production of cooling and heating is proposed.
• A solar assisted ORC with an ejector is integrated with the ARC and transcritical CO2 cycle.
• Effects of varying the influence operating conditions on the system performance are examined.
• Combined first and second law approach is applied to evaluate the energy and exergy efficiencies.
• The integrated system uses solar energy only to produce required cooling and heating which reduces load on the grid.

An integrated system for simultaneous production of triple-effect cooling and single stage heating is proposed in this paper to harness low grade solar energy. The proposed system combines the heliostat field with a central receiver and the ejector-absorption cycle with the shaft power driven transcritical CO2 cycle. A parametric study based on first and second laws of thermodynamics is carried out to ascertain the effect of varying the exit temperature of duratherm oil, turbine inlet pressure, and evaporators temperature on the energy and exergy output as well as on the energy and exergy efficiencies of the system. The results obtained indicate that major source of exergy destruction is the central receiver where 52.5% of the inlet solar heat exergy is lost followed by the heliostat where 25% of the inlet exergy is destroyed. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the integrated system vary from 32% to 39% and 2.5%–4.0%, respectively, with a rise in the hot oil outlet temperature from 160 °C–180 °C. It is further shown that increase in evaporator temperature of transcritical CO2 cycle from −20 °C to 0 °C increases the energy efficiency from 27.45% to 43.27% and exergy efficiency from 2.51% to 2.97%, respectively. The results clearly show how the variation in the values of hot oil outlet temperature, turbine inlet pressure, and the evaporator temperature of transcritical CO2 cycle strongly influences the attainable performance of the integrated system.