Design and assessment of a new solar-based biomass gasification system for hydrogen, cooling, power and fresh water production utilizing rice husk biomass

A new solar energy-based rice husk gasification system is introduced that produces renewable hydrogen as well as cooling, freshwater and electricity. The hydrogen production rate under design operating conditions is 0.0603 kg/s. Also, the peak rate of hydrogen production at a higher biomass feed rate of 5 kg/s is evaluated to be 0.3 kg/s. Moreover, the performance of the system introduced is evaluated through comprehensive thermodynamic analyses. The overall design efficiency considering energetic performance is 46.8% and the corresponding exergetic efficiency becomes 47.8%. In addition to this, the net rate of energy production attained by the combined cycle is 12.9 MW. Also, the system introduced provides a rate of cooling of 911.4 kW and a freshwater production rate of 410.9 kg/s. Higher steam to biomass and lower oxygen to feed ratios are found to improve system performances. Several other sensitivity analyses are conducted to investigate the performance under varying conditions.