Abstract
In this paper, a novel model of a concentrating photovoltaic-thermochemical (CPV/TC) hybrid system is proposed. Solar spectrum is seperated into several parts to enable photovoltaic (PV) and thermochemical (TC) conversion by utilizing the parabolic trough concentrator with a spectral beam splitter. The TC module absorbs the solar energy to supply the reaction heat of methanol-steam reforming (MSR) that produces hydrogen for power generation. The energy and exergy analyses on the CPV/TC hybrid system are carried out. The results reveal that the exergy losses of the CPV/TC hybrid system are mainly concentrated on the optical exergy loss, the exergy loss in the process of PV conversion and the exergy loss in the process of TC conversion which account for 32.7%, 32.2% and 27.0% of the total, respectively. The output power of the PV module, the methanol conversion rate of the solar receiver and the overall system efficiency with different splitting wavebands are investigated. Moreover, the CPV/TC hybrid system is compared with a single PV or TC system. The results indicate that the optimal splitting waveband for the PV module is 450-870 nm and the overall power generation efficiency can reach 26.0% which is 11.1 and 6.1 percentage points higher than that of a single PV and TC system under the same conditions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1021-1026 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Kung Cheng Je Wu Li Hsueh Pao/Journal of Engineering Thermophysics |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| State | Published - 1 May 2018 |
Keywords
- Exergy loss
- Methanol-steam reforming
- Photovoltaic-thermochemical
- Spectral beam splitter
