Exergo economic analysis of solar-assisted hybrid power generation systems integrated with thermochemical fuel conversion

Ting Yue and Noam Lior

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 191, issue C, 204-222

Abstract: Solar-assisted hybrid power generation systems integrated with thermochemical fuel conversion are of increasing interest because they offer efficient use of lower temperature solar heat, with the important associated advantages of lower emissions, reduction of use of depletable fuels, production of easily storable fuel to alleviate the variability of solar heat, and relatively low cost of the use of lower temperature solar components. This paper examines economic performance of two previously proposed and analyzed thermochemical hybridized power generation systems: SOLRGT that incorporates reforming of methane, and SOLRMCC that incorporates methanol decomposition, both of which use low temperature solar heat (at ∼220°C) to help convert the methane or methanol input to syngas, which is then burned for power generation. The solar heat is used “indirectly” in the methane reforming process, to vaporize the needed water for it, while it is used directly in the methanol decomposition process since methanol decomposition requires lower temperatures than methane reforming. This analysis resulted in an equation for each power system for determining the conditions under which the hybrid systems will have a lower levelized electricity cost, and how it will change as a function of the fuel price, carbon tax rate, and the cost of the collection equipment needed for the additional heat source.

Keywords: Thermochemical hybrid power generation system; Solar-assisted power systems; Hybrid power generation systems; Exergo-economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917300636
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:191:y:2017:i:c:p:204-222

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.01.055

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().