Development of a sustainable community with an integrated renewable and waste to energy system for multiple useful outputs

Abstract

Abstract In this study, a solar energy-based integrated gasification system is designed to produce multiple useful commodities, such as hydrogen, biogas, freshwater, domestic hot water, and power, for a sustainable community. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown society the importance of renewable energy systems and proper waste management systems. In this developed system, shredded waste tires are used to produce energy in the form of hydrogen and the syngas produced at the gasification unit is further utilized for the steam Rankine cycle, and this will be replaced with forward multi-effect desalination unit to produce useful outputs. This hybrid system is also incorporated with integrated anaerobic digestion and composting units to create a circular economy unlike traditional systems. This proposed system is thermodynamically analyzed and dynamically simulated by investigating the effect of dynamic solar intensities throughout the months in a year. Furthermore, the gasification products are analyzed by altering the steam and oxygen feed rate within the system. This system utilizes closed landfills with a renewable energy system, solar tower cycle, to produce energy and steam. This steam is then further utilized at the gasification unit as a gasification agent to increase hydrogen production. The total electricity and freshwater produced within this integrated system is calculated to be 163\xa0MW/h and 2.16 tonnes during its operation in a day. In addition, the hydrogen to fuel ratio at the gasifier and the hourly methane production at the anaerobic digestion unit are found to be 0.175 and 309\xa0m3/h, respectively. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies of this proposed system are observed to be 74% and 73%, respectively.