Abstract
This paper presents the energy analysis of a theoretical multi-generation plant which utilizes integrated solar thermal energy and ocean thermal energy for hydrogen and desalinated water production. The proposed novel plant consists of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) unit coupled with a solar boosted Multi-Effect Distillation (MED-TVC) unit. The temperature difference of the seawater pumped from both surface and depth of the oceans is utilized to produce electricity at the OTEC unit and then fed as feedwater to the MED-TVC plant for desalination. For the first time in literature, a parabolic trough collector (PTC) field is incorporated to act as the heat source for the MED-TVC unit. The waste heat recovered from MED-TVC unit is utilized to superheat the OTEC plant to improve its thermal efficiency and electricity generation. The electricity generated from the combined system is entirely utilized to power a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) electrolyser-based hydrogen production unit. Basic thermodynamic equilibrium equations for mass and energy were balanced for individual components of the system. A comprehensive parametric investigation is carried out for the proposed system and found that integrated plant can produce 2.471 kg/s of hydrogen and 89.21 kg/s of desalinated water under steady state operating conditions. Further, the energy efficiency of the multi-generation plant was found out to be 29.43%.