Design of Hybrid Solar Photovoltaics/Shrouded Wind Turbine Power System for Thermal Pyrolysis of Plastic Waste

The principal objective of this study is to optimize the design of an off-grid solar PV/wind turbine power system to serve the energy demand of a pyrolysis reactor. The goal is to develop sustainable and clean power system for the thermal conversion of solid waste to renewable and alternative fuels. A stand-alone hybrid renewable power system is designed, tested and the quality of the plastic oil is determined from TGA, FTIR and bomb calorimeter analysis. Modeling and optimization analysis is performed to simulate the off-grid renewable power system. The experimental results show the proposed hybrid power system meets all the energy demand of the reactor and the quality of plastic oil was comparable with diesel fuel. The simulation results for daily performance of the power system compare well with the experimental data. The simulation results showed that the off-grid hybrid power system offers the best power system architecture (renewable fraction and CO2 emissions) but the cost of electricity and the excess of electricity are higher. The grid-tied solar photovoltaic/wind turbine power system with the excess power sold back to the grid has the lowest cost of electricity (70 $/MWh), high renewable fraction (94.3%) and low CO2 emissions (44.1 kg CO2/year).