Transient Analysis of a Solar Chimney Power Plant Integrated with a Solid-Sorption Cooling System for Combined Power and Chilled Water Production

Abstract

Solar radiation is a reliable energy source that can be used to produce power and cold. Converting solar energy into electricity is attainable through solar chimney power plants. Moreover, solar energy has been utilized to produce cold in adsorption cooling systems. In the adsorption cooling cycle, the adsorption bed releases heat into the environment during the bed cooling phases. This paper introduces a novel hybrid solar chimney power plant integrated with a solar-driven adsorption water chiller. The purpose of the presented system is to enhance the system’s utilization of solar energy by recovering the reactor’s released heat and reusing it to augment the output power. In comparison with conventional solar chimney power plants, the introduced system produces continuous power throughout the day. A mathematical model is developed to evaluate the system’s performance. This model expresses the conservation of energy and mass for every component in the system. The silica gel and water adsorption pair is used in the simulation of the water chiller. It has been found that 62.6% of the adsorption reactor driving heat can be recycled. Therefore, a turbine power increase of 3.22% is obtained with a solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 0.4%.