Comparative analysis of a novel geothermal and nanofluid-based solar-driven multigeneration system integrated with high-temperature Kalina cycle: Energy, Exergy, and exergo-economics (3E) analysis

In this comparative study, the thermodynamic and economic investigation of an integrated system driven by a parabolic trough collector and geothermal water is carried out. The proposed multigeneration system is composed of a high-temperature modified Kalina cycle, an electrolyzer, a combined organic Rankine cycle-ejector refrigeration (ORC-EJR) cycle, a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination unit, and a domestic water heater. The absorption fluids applied in the solar collector are AL2O3 and CuO-based nanofluids, and Therminol VP1 as the base fluid. A comprehensive thermodynamic and exergo-economic analysis is carried out for the proposed cycle. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software is used in all conducted simulations. Nanoparticle percentage, solar irradiation, ambient temperature, and collector inlet temperature were the parameters studied to find their effects on the hydrogen production rate, total net power, useful energy achieved, energy and exergy efficiency, collector outlet temperature, and freshwater production rate. The highest outlet temperature of the solar collector was found to be 688.7 K, and the maximum energetic and exergetic efficiencies of the cycle were 34.45% and 17.25%, respectively. The exergo-economic outputs show that the PEM with 1.99 $/h has the maximum exergy destruction cost rate. The results depicted that CuO-based nanofluid has better performance from the exergy and exergo-economic viewpoints compared to AL2O3-nanofluid. Also, the results proved that the nanoparticle percentage and solar irradiation increases lead to the increase in hydrogen production rate and total net power produced by the system. Moreover, the freshwater production rate increases when the ambient temperature and the collector inlet temperature rise.