Solar Energy for Combined Production of Electricity and Industrial Process Heat
Abstract
A parabolic-trough collector cogeneration solar power plant may meet the thermal and electrical demand in industries, especially at average and low temperatures (<250°C). Simulations were performed to attend the demand of a food processing plant installed at three locations in Northeastern Brazil with different Direct Normal Irradiances (DNI). The solar power plant was simulated using different receiver settings with and without vacuum for the generation of 1 MWe and the supply of industrial process heat. A comparison between organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and steam Rankine cycle (SRC) was also performed to confirm the best power cycle to be applied to those plants. The results showed that the ORC allows higher efficiencies than the SRC, regardless of the receiver used (i.e. evacuated or not).