Thermodynamic and sustainability assessment of a biomass-fired hydrogen-assisted polygeneration system integrating rankine cycle, organic rankine cycle, and multi-effect distillation
Process Safety and Environmental Protection, cilt.217, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 217
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.psep.2026.109349
- Dergi Adı: Process Safety and Environmental Protection
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Chemical Abstracts Core, Chimica, Compendex, INSPEC
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Biomass energy, Exergy analysis, Hydrogen production, Multi-Effect Distillation, Polygeneration, Sustainability assessment
- Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The idea of producing electricity, hydrogen and fresh water all at once has started to attract attention because of the potential benefits it can provide in terms of better resource utilization and the support of sustainable development. While biomass power generation, hydrogen production and thermal desalination have been extensively studied individually, there has been little work done on the complete appraisal of biomass-based energy-water-hydrogen systems. Specifically, the integration of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) waste heat recovery with hydrogen-assisted Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) desalination has not received much research and development attention. This study proposes and evaluates the thermodynamic performance of a polygeneration system using biomass-fired hydrogen-assisted technologies developed from the following components: a Rankine cycle engine; a biomass-fired ORC unit; and a PEM electrolyzer and MED Desalination Unit. The overall energy-water-hydrogen system model was developed and evaluated using engineering equation solver software (EES) under steady-state operating conditions. This paper presents energy, exergy, environmental sustainability, sensitivity and economic analyses of three different configuration systems, a conventional Rankine cycle, a Rankine-ORC system and an integrated Rankine-ORC-PEM-MED. The integrated Rankine-ORC-PEM-MED system had the best overall performance with overall energy efficiency of 38.6% and an overall exergy efficiency of 31.8%, which was an increase of 23.7% from conventional Rankine cycle for energy efficiency and 17.3% for exergy efficiency. The overall sustainability index improved from 1.37 to 1.47 and the overall specific CO₂ emissions decreased by 68% from 0.42 to 0.13 kg/kWh of produced electrical energy. The system also produced hydrogen at a rate of 0.015 kg/s and provide freshwater at a rate of 9.5 kg/s, and the overall specific freshwater production is 3.56 L/kWh of produced electrical energy. The economic analysis resulted in LCOE of $0.075/kWh and SFC of $1.20/m3. Overall, this research demonstrates that the use of ORC technology along with PEM electrolysis to produce hydrogen and hydrogen assisted MED desalination from biomass sources significantly improves the thermodynamic, environmental, and economic performance of polygeneration systems utilizing biomass.