Energy and exergy analysis of a concentrated photovoltaic recuperator design for a geothermal based multi-generation system. (25th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kurşun, Burak
• Is Part Of: Applied thermal engineering. Volume 181(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11-25
• Subjects: Concentrated photovoltaic recuperator -- Geothermal energy -- Multi-generation system; Heat engineering -- Periodicals; Heating -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2020.115932
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-4311

Abstract

Highlights: The multi-generation system was assisted by a photovoltaic recuperator. The overall energy efficiency of the system was increased. Heating, cooling, power, and hydrogen production were enhanced. The higher electricity production was obtained for the M−Si and P-Si cells. The higher cooling capacity was obtained for the Ge and CdTe cells. Abstract: Photovoltaic thermal systems consist of a photovoltaic module and a fluid channel necessary to cool it. With the photovoltaic thermal system, electricity production and heating of the working fluid have been provided in literature studies. In this study, a novel photovoltaic thermal system design, consisting of a counter-flow heat exchanger and a photovoltaic module, was presented. The use of this novel design as a recuperator in a multi-generation system was analyzed thermodynamically. Thermodynamic analyzes were carried out for parameters including solar input, photovoltaic thermal system structure, and fluid pressure. For the photovoltaic recuperator use, depending on the parameter values, enhancements were achieved in the range of 1.3–42% for hydrogen production, 0–17.6% for cooling capacity, 8.1–13.5% for heating capacity and 1.34–44.2% for net power output. The overall energy efficiency of the system increased with the increase of heat energy coming to the photovoltaic module. However, the low contribution of the photovoltaic recuperator to exergy output and high exergy destruction rate in photovoltaic recuperator caused the overall exergy efficiency of the system to decrease for the high solar energy inputs. This case revealed that improvements in the photovoltaic recuperator design would increase the overall exergy efficiency of the system.