Analysis of a combined cycle utilizing parabolic trough collector integrated organic Rankine cycle and single-stage evaporation

• A unit with trough collector, integrated with organic Rankine cycle is considered. • Integrating organic Rankine cycle led to a 4156 kW production of net output power. • Raising the working fluid temperature of trough collector reduces the received heat. • Increase in mass flow has a direct relation with mass density of produced fresh water. • A parabolic trough collector with an exergy efficiency of 1050.60 kW was calculated. Considering the harmful environmental effects of greenhouse gases, including global warming, many researchers are looking to use cleaner energy. In the meantime, renewable energies, including solar energy, have received much attention due to their availability and sustainability. There are different processes for desalination including multi effect desalination (MED), reverse Osmosis (RO), multi stage flash (MSF), etc. The proposed innovative system in this research is based on parabolic trough collector (PTC), which makes the system efficient and renewable. In this system, PTC have the task of collecting sunlight and transferring it to the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). The turbine is responsible for generating electricity in the ORC in this system. Also, the residual heat is transferred to the single stage evaporation unit (SSE). This unit produces hot water and fresh water. Also, the remaining heat is used by another heat exchanger to produce hydrogen. The integration of this system with renewable energy as a research gap was investigated in this research. The proposed system is simulated in Aspen HYSYS software. Finally, the amount of production equivalent to 32.2 kg/s, 0.55944 kg/s, 4156 kW and 10 kg/s was calculated for hot water, hydrogen, electricity and fresh water respectively.