The production of electricity, heat and hydrogen with the thermal power plant in combination with alternative technologies

Alternative technologies in combination with thermal power plant allow the production of heat, electricity and hydrogen using renewable energy sources in combination with gas or coal, as a very important energy source in traditional energy engineering in Slovenia. The technologies aim, inter alia, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the use of renewable energy sources and take a step forward to the production of hydrogen as an alternative energy source in numerous applications. In view of the estimated demand for heat, electricity and hydrogen in the Savinja-Salek region, Slovenia, the technologies to meet such demand are proposed in this article from a technical perspective. An energy and economic analysis of the operation of the Thermal Power Plant (TPP) will be done. The TPP is operating in a variable operating regime. The possibility of stationary operation of the power plant will be analysed, the surplus of produced electricity will be used for the hydrogen production. The process is based on the Rankine-Clausius cycle (RC) with dual superheating using water or steam as the working media. The idea in this article, is to generate in the above mentioned facility as much hydrogen, heat, cold and electricity as needed by the Savinja-Salek region in industry, transport, etc. Thus, the power plant could operate optimally, constantly at 100% of power, which would allow simultaneous production of electricity, heat and hydrogen. Hydrogen could be used for sale on the market or for the electricity production or for heating. Hydrogen could be produced via electrolysis or thermochemical process. In the second part of article, the analysis of RC with concentrated solar energy and wood chips was analysed. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study proposes the use of alternative technologies in combination with a thermal power plant to produce heat, electricity, and hydrogen using renewable energy sources in Slovenia. Through energy and economic analysis, the operation and stability of the thermal power plant are discussed, as well as the possibility of using surplus electricity to produce hydrogen.