Faculty of Mechanical and material Engineering, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Jan;29(4):5469-5495. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-16035-2. Epub 2021 Aug 22.
With the ever-rising paces of fuel consumption and CO emission, the urge for renewable energy resources is becoming a challenge in today's world; especially for Iran that has started to reduce its fuel subsidies. The need for electricity and fresh water in the southern coastal regions of the country is increasing with the increase in the population. The high solar radiation level in the region is a promising alternative to mitigate the fuel consumption of the conventional power or desalination plants by the solar thermal source through the concentrated solar technology. In addition, the CO emission of the aforementioned plants significantly diminishes by using the molten carbonate fuel cell that is suitable for the CO capture. Furthermore, the combination of different power and water technologies, which are operating at different temperatures and pressures, leads to enhance the overall efficiency of the integrated systems. To this end, a novel integrated power/water plant comprising a solar tower, a molten carbonate fuel cell, a gas turbine, a solar Rankine cycle, an organic Rankine cycle, a multi-effect distillation, and reverse osmosis desalination was techno-economically investigated. The multi-objective genetic algorithm was used to find the optimum configuration of the system with the low amount of CO emissions, and low unit costs of the electricity and fresh water. The results showed that the most effective parameter on system performance is the operating pressure of the molten carbonate fuel cell. For the optimum configurations of the system, the electricity unit of the cost was found as a value between 0.022 and 0.025 $/kWh. Part of the electricity unit of the cost that is associated with the output power that is generated based on solar thermal energy was obtained as a value between 0.08 and 0.092 $/kWh. In addition, the average unit cost of fresh water was obtained as 1.21 $/m. The payback period of the system was obtained as 10.44 years if the electricity and fresh water are sold as 0.023 $/kWh and 1.21 $/m. This can be reduced to 2.88 years for the electricity and fresh water selling prices of 0.069 $/kWh and 1.40 $/m, respectively. Based on the results, the system with the solar thermal resource will be economically justifiable if the fuel price is increased.
随着燃料消耗和二氧化碳排放的步伐不断加快，对可再生能源的需求在当今世界成为一个挑战；特别是对于伊朗来说，伊朗已经开始减少燃料补贴。随着该国南部沿海地区人口的增加，对电力和淡水的需求也在增加。该地区的太阳辐射水平很高，可以通过集中太阳能技术利用太阳能热源来减轻传统发电或海水淡化厂的燃料消耗。此外，使用适合 CO 捕获的熔融碳酸盐燃料电池可显著减少上述工厂的 CO 排放。此外，不同的电力和水技术组合，在不同的温度和压力下运行，可提高集成系统的整体效率。为此，研究了一种新型的集成式电力/水厂，该工厂由太阳能塔、熔融碳酸盐燃料电池、燃气轮机、太阳能朗肯循环、有机朗肯循环、多效蒸馏和反渗透海水淡化组成，对其进行了技术经济研究。使用多目标遗传算法来找到具有低 CO 排放量和低电力与淡水单位成本的系统最优配置。结果表明，对系统性能最有效的参数是熔融碳酸盐燃料电池的运行压力。对于系统的最优配置，发现电力单位成本的价值在 0.022 美元至 0.025 美元/千瓦时之间。与基于太阳能热能产生的输出功率相关的部分电力单位成本的价值在 0.08 美元至 0.092 美元/千瓦时之间。此外，平均单位淡水成本为 1.21 美元/立方米。如果电力和淡水以 0.023 美元/千瓦时和 1.21 美元/立方米的价格出售，系统的投资回收期为 10.44 年。如果电力和淡水的销售价格分别为 0.069 美元/千瓦时和 1.40 美元/立方米，则投资回收期可缩短至 2.88 年。根据研究结果，如果燃料价格上涨，利用太阳能热能的系统在经济上是合理的。
