Design and performance evaluation of a new biomass and solar based combined system with thermochemical hydrogen production

A biomass and solar energy based system consisting of a gas turbine cycle, a reheat Rankine cycle, a solar heliostat field, four-step copper-chlorine cycle and absorption cooling system is newly proposed, analyzed and comparatively evaluated through energy and exergy approaches. The proposed system is designed for the multiple useful commodities of hydrogen, electricity, hot water for fish farming and cooling. The effects of different operating conditions and parameters, namely air flow rate, biomass flow rate, working fluid flow rate, direct normal irradiance, number of heliostats, evaporator exit temperature and ambient temperature are investigated for the performance of the designed system defined in terms of energy and exergy efficiencies, and energy and exergetic coefficients of performance. The combined system, excluding solar heliostat field and absorption cooling system, is simulated using the Aspen Plus while the subsystems are modeled using the engineering equation solver package. Heating and cooling are produced for community usage, and hydrogen can be employed for industrial purposes. Both design and cost analyses are also conducted using the Aspen Plus v9 and Aspen Plus economic analyzer v9. The energy efficiency of the overall system is determined as 29.9% while the corresponding exergy efficiency is obtained to be 31.5%. The additional findings and outcomes are also presented and discussed comprehensively.