An EU-funded project unveiled an innovative trigeneration system that generates electricity and useful heating and cooling from a solar thermal collector.
Combined cooling, heat and power – trigeneration – is an extremely efficient decentralised energy technology where electricity is produced close to where it will be used. Development of such a system using renewable energy sources has major potential to help fulfil the EU's 20-20-20 targets.
An innovative trigeneration system fuelled entirely by solar energy could greatly benefit homes and small businesses that are far from grid systems and for heating, ventilating and air conditioning. Developed by the EU-funded project 'A novel tri-generation system powered by solar energy' (ANTSPSE), a small-scale all-in-one energy system prototype provides electricity as an alternative or supplement to traditional centralised grid-connected power.
Scientists integrated the steam engine with desiccant cooling/heating technology. The desiccant system uses an innovative membrane to maximise heat and mass transfer between air and the desiccant solution.
Another focus was on testing the thermal performance of the linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) that uses mirrors to concentrate the Sun's energy. In addition, a semi-parabolic LFR was proposed and its performance was compared with that of the LFR. The ray-tracing technique was used to optimise the design of these systems. Scientists used computational fluid dynamic models to investigate their performance as well as that of the desiccant cooling system.
Additionally, scientists developed models for the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). Simulation results showed that efficiency increases by nearly 40 % in the two-stage ORC system compared to the one-stage, as long as a certain working fluid is used.
Project work included analysis of the potential economic and environmental benefits of the proposed trigeneration system. The payback period of the solar energy system was estimated for some selected locations.
Several conferences and seminars took place to present the novel design concept of the multifunctional solar trigeneration system. The research activities of ANTSPSE generated a number of publications. Scientists also submitted a patent application to protect their innovative product and the details of the structure design.
