Investigation of concentrating solar-biomass-fired power technologies based on advanced exergy, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses

Abstract

In this study, hybrid renewable power systems (HRPS) based on biomass-fired (BF) and concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies are investigated. Parabolic trough collector (PTC), linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) and solar tower (ST) as CSP technologies are considered. This study aims to determine and compare exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental factors, as well as and the relative cost and environmental impact differences of three proposed HRPS options for the district of Faro in the province of Garoua, Cameroon. Also, advanced exergy destruction expressions are used. We found the optimized exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental factors for the subsystems of HRPS to be between 0.04–0.98 and 0.05–0.98, respectively. They have the highest values for the drying system (DS), and the lowest values for the solar-biomass field (SF+BF). The relative cost and environmental impact differences for the subsystems of HRPS are in the ranges of 0.07–0.79 and 0.28–0.96, respectively. They have the highest values for the DS, and the lowest values for the power block (PB). According to the levelized exergoeconomic/exergoenvironmental performances, PTC – BF presents the worst results before the optimization. ST – BF shows the best exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental performance in the optimization process. The results of the sensitivity and optimization analyses reveal that it is essential to conduct eco-indicator and advanced exergy analyses to avoid high environmental impact points and specific exergy destructions.