Exergetic assessment of an solar powered stand-alone system using liquid organic hydrogen carrier for energy storage

The integration of energy storage technologies into renewable energy systems has gained increasing attention for continuous supply of the renewable-based enegy. Among different storage alternatives, the use of a Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) has a significant potential as a reversible energy carrier for short and long-term energy storage. In this study, the technical and economic performance of an stand-alone renewable energy systems using a LOHC for energy storage have been evaluated by exergy-based methods in addition to simple energy and economic analysis. The analysis of the LOHC-free system was also included to determine the effect of LOHC on the system performance. The system containing phovoltaic (PV) panels, an electrolyzer, a micro gas turbine and hydrogenation/dehydrogenation LOHC units was designed to meet the power, heating and cooling requirement of a residential building. The system modelling and performance evaluation were made by using TRNSYS and EES softwares. Results show that the LOHC-containing system has higher energy and exergy efficiencies and exergoeconomic performance than the LOHC-free system while the latter is economically more feasible than the former due to its low capital investment cost.