Performance investigation of hydrogen production by the flat-plate collectors assisted by a solar pond

In this study, an integrated model system which is consisted of a solar pond, flat-plate collectors and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) was designed to determine not only thermal and electricity but also hydrogen generation performances. The flat-plate collectors assisted by a solar pond to enhanced the thermal performance of the system in order to generate electrical energy with ORC. In addition, mass, enthalpy, entropy, energy and exergy balance equations of the system was solved by using a software which is called Engineering Equation Solver (EES). Thus, the thermodynamic analysis of the system were done. As a result, a significant amount of electrical energy is produced by using ORC which works with the thermal energy comes from the integrated system. Thus, this system can reach up to a hydrogen production rate of 2.25 kg/day by the water electrolysis system. The results show that hydrogen production performance increased by increasing the performance of the thermal system. Thus, the performance of a solar pond is an important effects at the performance of the integrated system. We believe that the theoretical results obtained in this work are very useful for making realistic and accurate predictions about the pre-planned integrated systems to produce the hydrogen energy. © 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LL