Analysis of a sequential production of electricity, ice and drying of agricultural products by cascading geothermal energy Vı´ctor M. Ambriz-Dı´az a,* , Carlos Rubio-Maya a , J. Jesu ´ s Pacheco Ibarra a , Sergio R. Galv  an Gonz  alez a , Jesu ´s Martı´nez Pati ~ no b a Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, “W” Building, Central Campus, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicol as de Hidalgo, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico b Department of Electrical Engineering, DICIS, University of Guanajuato, Salamanca, Gto., Mexico article info Article history: Received 16 November 2016 Received in revised form 8 February 2017 Accepted 21 February 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Geothermal energy Cascade use Electricity Ice Dehydration abstract In this paper, it is presented an analysis for the sequential production of electricity, ice and drying of agricultural products, by the concept of cascade for medium and low temperature geothermal energy. To carry out the analysis, a set of practical assumptions for the inte- gration of technologies operated by cascade method for geothermal energy were defined. The geothermal cascade is composed of three thermal levels, each one operating under different temperatures in decreasing form. Additionally, the thermal cascade is composed at the first level by an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) for electricity production. In the second thermal level, by an absorption refrigeration cycle for ice production, and in the third level includes a dehydrator for drying of agricultural products. The agricultural products considered for dehydration are: avocado, green chile and tomato. Once the main as- sumptions were set, five integration alternatives and five different modes of operation of the system were proposed. The alternatives have different features for the activation of the first thermal level of the cascade, different nominal capacities of electricity production, cold, and quantity of product to be dehydrated. Subsequently, a technical-economic analysis is carried out to obtain the performance and energy characteristics of the different thermal levels of the cascade, different modes of operation, carbon dioxide emissions, cost estimations and indicators of economic viability. The results indicate that the dehydration process improves drastically the economic profits of all alternatives, especially for dehydration of tomato, achieving simple payback periods of around one year, overall energy efficiency of up to 17.84% and greenhouse emissions reduction of 537.7 tonnes of CO 2 per year. Concerning the modes of operation, it was determined that the one based on only-electricity production is not desirable due to the worst energy and economic performance. © 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Group of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (GREEN-ER), Mexico. E-mail address: vambriz@umich.mx (V.M.Ambriz-Dı´az). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (2017) 1 e11 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.154 0360-3199/© 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article in press as: Ambriz-Dı ´az VM, et al., Analysis of a sequential production of electricity, ice and drying of agricultural products by cascading geothermal energy, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.ijhydene.2017.02.154