Abstract
This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of a poly-generation system powered by solar thermal energy using parabolic trough collectors. The proposed system consists of an organic Rankine cycle, a multiple effect distillation and an absorption cooling unit. The performance analysis of the solar system is conducted for different configurations: power generation only, cogeneration power and cooling, cogeneration power and desalination, and poly-generation. The effects of turbine inlet temperature and pump inlet temperature on the energetic and exergetic system performance as well as the net power output and total exergy loss of the system are examined. In addition, exergetic parameters, including system total exergy loss, fuel depletion ratio and improvement potential were analyzed. The study reveals that increasing the turbine inlet temperature increases the performance while it reduces the total exergy destruction rate of the system. The result of the study also shows that the two main sources of exergy destruction are the solar thermal collector and desalination unit; with 49.3% of the input exergy (76% of the total exergy loss) destructed in the collector while 9.6% of the inlet exergy (14.9% of the total exergy loss) is destroyed in the desalination system. The overall improvement potential of the system was found to be 64.8%.
•Energetic and exergetic analysis of solar poly-generation system was performed.•Performance analysis was made for different configurations of the system.•Impact of turbine inlet temperature on system performance was investigated.•Total exergy loss, fuel depletion ratio and improvement potential were evaluated.•Solar collector and desalination unit are the main sources of exergy destruction.