In this work, a mathematical modeling of a hybrid system using concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) collector integrated with combined desalination and cooling plant is presented. The hybrid system performance is analyzed throughout the day during summer (21/06/2018) and winter solstice (22/12/2018) in the geographical location of Vellore, India. The effect of meteorological variables on system performances such as hot water temperature, PV efficiency, desalination yield, chilled air temperature, and plant energy utilization factor (EUF) are analyzed. The overall plant performance is also compared with conventional solar flat plate collector driven desalination and cooling plant. The developed model is validated with experimental work. The highest EUF of CPVT driven plant in summer and winter solstice are 0.29 and 0.31, respectively. The comparative study reveals that use of CPVT collector to operate desalination and cooling plant improves the plant EUF. The highest increase in plant EUF of 49% is attained at a hot water temperature of 47.5 °C. Further, economical evaluation of CPVT operated desalination and cooling plant is carried out to estimate the unit cost of fresh water and payback period. Based on energy cost and interest rate in Vellore, India, the unit cost of fresh water and payback period are estimated to be ₹ 10/L and 6.5 years, respectively.

In this work, a techno-economic analysis of concentrated photovoltaic/thermal collector (CPVT) driven desalination and cooling plant is presented. The system comprises of a CPVT collector, a humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination unit and vapour compression refrigeration (VCR) unit. The CPVT collector having 10 m² aperture area and a triple junction PV panel placed at the receiver supplies required hot water to the HDH desalination system. Chilled water generated from 0.5 hp compressor operated VCR unit is supplied to the dehumidifier of HDH desalination. The process of cooling and dehumidification using chilled water result in increased desalination yield and resulting air is suitable for air conditioning purpose. The work is aimed to evaluate the annual performance of the trigeneration plant and to estimate the unit cost of fresh water and payback period. The annual performance of the plant is evaluated for the typical metrological year data for the location of Vellore, India. Results show that the annual desalination, electricity and cooling output are 4.2 m³/yr and 3.46 MWh/yr and 0.788 MWh/yr respectively. The daily average desalination and cooling output are 11.12 L/day and 2.47 kWh/day respectively. The annual electricity consumption of the solar cogeneration plant is 6570 kWh/yr. The estimated unit cost of fresh water is ¹10/L. By considering the interest rate of 9 % and total life time of the plant as 20 years, the payback period is estimated to be 6.5 years.

To increase energy efficiency, heat pump dryers and membrane dryers have been proposed to replace conventional fossil fuel dryers. Both conventional and heat pump dryers require substantial energy for condensing and reheating, while “active” membrane systems require vacuum pumps that are insufficiently developed. Lower temperature dehumidification systems make efficient use of membrane energy recovery ventilators (MERVs) that do not need vacuum pumps, but their high heat losses and lack of vapor selectivity have prevented their use in industrial drying. In this work, we propose an insulating membrane energy recovery ventilator for moisture removal from drying exhaust air, thereby reducing sensible heat loss from the dehumidification process and reheating energy. The second law analysis of the proposed system is carried out and compared with a baseline convective heat pump dryer. Irreversibilities in each component under different ambient temperatures (5–35 °C) and relative humidity (5–95%) are identified. At an ambient temperature of 35 °C, the proposed system substantially reduces sensible heat loss (47–60%) in the dehumidification process, resulting in a large reduction in condenser load (45–50%) compared to the baseline system. The evaporator in the proposed system accounts for up to 59% less irreversibility than the baseline system. A maximum of 24.5% reduction in overall exergy input is also observed. The highest exergy efficiency of 10.2% is obtained at an ambient condition of 35 °C and 5% relative humidity, which is more than twice the efficiency of the baseline system under the same operating condition.