محمد أشرف محمد
مدرس مساعد
Evaluation of new cascade sustainable multioutput energy system for hydrogen/fresh water/power production from industrial waste: Impact of working fluid and heat source conditions
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer • 2026
معلومات البحث
المؤلفون
Mohamed Ashraf, Sameh Nada, Hamdy Hassan
الكلمات المفتاحية
Waste steam; Hydrogen production; Heat recovery; Poly-generation system; PEM electrolysis; HDH desalination
المجلة العلمية
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
الناشر
Elsevier Ltd
المجلد
179
العدد
Not Available
الصفحات
112221
publication.type
International
رابط البحث
Open Link
المواد المرفقة
Not Available
الملخص
This study assesses a poly-generation system, driven by low-grade industrial waste steam, that is electrically and hydraulically self-sufficient — its hydrogen electrolyzer draws power and feedwater entirely from upstream subsystems within the cascade rather than from grid electricity or external freshwater supply — while depending on a continuous waste-steam stream, seawater feed, and auxiliary cooling infrastructure as its external thermal and material boundary conditions. The system features a four-stage thermodynamic cascade comprising an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), a Thermoelectric Generator (TEG), a Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) desalination unit, and a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. The study was carried out for the ORC working fluids R245fa, Cyclopentane, and n-Pentane, at different waste steam temperatures and qualities. A rigorous mathematical model was developed in MATLAB, with each subsystem independently validated against dedicated experimental datasets; full four-stage cascade validation was not attempted because no equivalent integrated experimental system exists in the literature. The results show that using R245fa resulted in significant operational instability, with a 16% power drop. Cyclopentane eliminates the transition penalty and ensures a smooth, monotonic rise in power across the full temperature range. Under the highest steam operating conditions (200 °C, saturated vapor), the system utilizing Cyclopentane delivers a maximum net power of 998.48 kW, a peak hydrogen production rate of 22.12 kg/h, and an overall system efficiency of 12.82%, representing a 25% improvement over the R245fa baseline. A complementary exergy analysis reveals that Cyclopentane also achieves the highest overall second-law efficiency (18.20%). Furthermore, component-level assessments identify the HDH unit as the primary thermodynamic bottleneck with the lowest exergetic efficiency (0.19%). In contrast, the PEM electrolyzer achieves the highest (>73%), confirming the rational allocation of high-quality electrical exergy toward hydrogen production. Simultaneously, the HDH unit secures a substantial freshwater surplus of 1948 L/h beyond the electrolyzer's consumption. The study highlights a strategic trade-off: while saturated steam maximizes electrical output, lower steam quality (0.8) maximizes the Energy Utilization Factor of a peak of 39.23%. Techno-economic and environmental assessments confirm the system's viability; utilizing Cyclopentane at 200 °C minimizes the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) to an optimal 1.783 USD/kg, yielding a 20-year Net Present Value (NPV) of 4967.5 kUSD with a rapid payback period (PBP) of 2.49 yr, while mitigating 3775.8 tons of CO2 annually.
