Energetic and exergetic investigation of novel multi-flash geothermal systems integrated with electrolyzers.

Abstract: In this paper, a comparative energetic and exergetic study is conducted to analyze novel multi-flash (single to quintuple) geothermal power generating systems which are newly integrated with electrolyzers for hydrogen production. The effects of increasing the number of flashing from one to five for the system on its performance are carefully studied for practical applications. In addition, parametric studies are undertaken to investigate the effects of varying several operating conditions on the performance of the integrated multi-flash systems. The results show that increasing ambient temperature results in smaller exergy destruction rates and higher overall exergy efficiencies. Furthermore, the quintuple-flash system integrated with electrolyzer provides the largest power output and the highest energy and exergy efficiencies among the systems considered. The power generation, hydrogen production rate and overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the quintuple flash integrated system are found to be varying from 6.8 kW to 112.9 kW, 2.6 L s−1 to 44.21 L s−1, 2.8%–4.6%, and 46.5%–53.4%, respectively, by increasing the geothermal source temperature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]