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Research Article

A hybrid system for power, desalination, and cooling using concentrated photovoltaic/thermal collector

ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 1416-1436 | Received 31 Jan 2019, Accepted 02 Jul 2019, Published online: 23 Jul 2019
 

ABSTRACT

In this work, a mathematical modeling of a hybrid system using concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) collector integrated with combined desalination and cooling plant is presented. The hybrid system performance is analyzed throughout the day during summer (21/06/2018) and winter solstice (22/12/2018) in the geographical location of Vellore, India. The effect of meteorological variables on system performances such as hot water temperature, PV efficiency, desalination yield, chilled air temperature, and plant energy utilization factor (EUF) are analyzed. The overall plant performance is also compared with conventional solar flat plate collector driven desalination and cooling plant. The developed model is validated with experimental work. The highest EUF of CPVT driven plant in summer and winter solstice are 0.29 and 0.31, respectively. The comparative study reveals that use of CPVT collector to operate desalination and cooling plant improves the plant EUF. The highest increase in plant EUF of 49% is attained at a hot water temperature of 47.5 °C. Further, economical evaluation of CPVT operated desalination and cooling plant is carried out to estimate the unit cost of fresh water and payback period. Based on energy cost and interest rate in Vellore, India, the unit cost of fresh water and payback period are estimated to be ₹ 10/L and 6.5 years, respectively.

Nomenclature

A=

area, m2

Cp=

specific heat, kJ/kg-K

h=

specific enthalpy, kJ/kg

Ib=

beam radiation, W/m2

K=

conductive conductance, (W/K)

m=

mass flow rate, kg/s

Q=

heat, kW

T=

temperature, °C

w=

specific humidity, kg/kg

η=

efficiency

Suffix

a=

ambient air

ap=

aperture

b=

back

b=

beam radiation

br=

brine

c=

cell

cw=

chilled water

dw=

distilled water

fr=

front

inv=

inverter

opt=

optical

p=

plate

s=

saturation

sw=

saline water

u=

useful

w=

water

Acronyms and abbreviations

CPVT=

Concentrated Photovoltaic/Thermal

EUF=

Energy Utilization Factor

MNRE=

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

NA=

Not Available

PVT=

Photovoltaic Thermal

SBI=

State Bank of India

SFPC=

Solar Flat Plate Collectors

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India [22(0627)/13/EMR-II].

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