Techno-economic evaluation and multi-criteria optimization of a trigeneration flash–binary geothermal power plant integrated with parabolic trough solar collectors

This study presents a hybrid solar–geothermal power plant to produce power, heating and cooling. The proposed integrated power plant is composed of a flash–binary geothermal cycle, parabolic trough solar collectors, auxiliary heater, single effect LiBr–water absorption chiller and heat exchangers. The plant produces constant electrical power as well as heating and cooling required for a yeast production factory. The energetic and exergetic efficiencies of the solar–geothermal power plant for the proposed system under the steady-state condition with constant irradiance are evaluated at 10.78% and 23.1%, respectively. It also found that most of the exergy destruction in the power plant occurs inside solar collectors and auxiliary heaters. It was calculated that heat exchanger three and an absorption chiller would produce 1.97 MW of power, 4.03 MW of heat and 563.2 kW of cooling. Moreover, the variation of evaluation parameters based on the changes in solar beam irradiance is investigated. It found that increasing beam irradiance will result in increasing total exergy efficiency and reducing C˙tot\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\dot{C}_{{{\text{tot}}}}$$\end{document}, in constant heat input to the cycle. The share of the auxiliary heater in the plant’s energy-providing and the fuel’s mass flow rate would be decreased by increasing the solar beam irradiance.