Thermoeconomic Optimization of a Renewable Polygeneration System Serving a Small Isolated Community

Francesco Calise, Massimo Dentice D'Accadia, Antonio Piacentino and Maria Vicidomini
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Francesco Calise: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Massimo Dentice D'Accadia: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Antonio Piacentino: Department of Energy, Information Engineering and Mathematical Models, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Maria Vicidomini: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-30

Abstract: During the last years, special attention has been paid to renewable polygeneration technologies, able of simultaneously producing thermal, cooling, electrical energy and desalinated water from seawater. This paper focuses on an innovative polygeneration system driven by renewable energy sources, including the following technologies: hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collectors, concentrating parabolic trough (CPVT), a biomass heater, a single-stage absorption chiller and a multiple-effect distillation desalination system. The system is designed to cover the base load of an isolated small community. In previous papers, the dynamic simulation model about plant operation is discussed. In this paper, a detailed exergy, economic and environmental analysis of the plant is presented. In addition, the plant was optimized using different objective functions, applying the Design of Experiment (DoE) methodology which evaluates the sensitivity of the different objective functions with respect to the selected design parameters. The results show that an increase of the storage volume is generally negative, whereas increasing the solar field area involves an increase of the exergy destruction rate, but also an improvement of the CPVT exergy output provided; the final result is an increase of both the exergy efficiency and the economic profitability of the polygeneration system.

Keywords: solar heating and cooling; photovoltaic/thermal collectors (PVT); solar desalination; multiple-effect distillation (MED); exergy analysis; exergoeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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