Development of a Geothermal-Based Integrated Plant for Generating Clean Hydrogen and Other Useful Commodities

Abstract

In this study, geothermal energy is considered as a renewable energy source to finally provide various useful outputs such as electricity, hydrogen, fresh and hot water, drying, heating, and cooling. In this regard, a new geothermal power-based multigenerational system is proposed to meet these demands in an environmentally benign manner and studied thermodynamically by considering energy and exergy approaches and investigating parametrically. A combination of geothermal energy is used to achieve the most promising hydrogen generation rates and high plant performances. The results of this study indicate that the energy and exergy efficiency values of the entire plant for the selected operating conditions become 38.41% and 42.57%. In addition to the thermodynamic analysis performed, numerous parametric studies are performed to reveal how operating conditions and state parameters affect the overall system performance. According to the parametric analyses results, for given ranges, an increase in ambient temperature, separator working temperature, geothermal fluid temperature, and geothermal fluid mass flowrate have positive impact on both energy and exergy efficiency of the integrated system and useful products generation rate as well.