Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Conversion and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman Exergoeconomic optimization of a solar driven system with reverse osmosis desalination unit and phase change material thermal energy storages Hamid Reza Abbasi a , Hossein Pourrahmani b, ⁎ , Adel Yavarinasab c , Mohammad Ali Emadi a , Mina Hoorfar c a School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran 16844-13114, Iran b Group of Energy Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion 1951, Switzerland c School of Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Exergoeconomic analysis Multi-objective optimization Solar energy Phase change materials (PCM) Reverse osmosis (RO) Kalina cycle ABSTRACT The goal of the current article is to suggest a novel solar system to produce power, fresh water, and cooling. As solar energy is unavailable at nights, a novel thermal storage system (TES) based on phase change material (PCM) is used to store the required energy for night demands. The main novelty of the current configuration for the PCM is on the dynamic modelling of the PCM to capture the performance of the system during a day and perform the exergoeconomic analysis. After receiving the solar energy, a gas turbine and a Kalina cycle would supply the electricity of the grid. Additionally, the cooling capacity would be provided by the LNG stream for the domestic users, while reverse osmosis (RO) unit would produce the fresh water. To examine the performance of the system, the output parameters of the exergoeconomic analysis in addition to exergy destructions for each sub-system are computed. The output results indicate that the exergy efficiency is about 21.19%, while that of the energy is 41.00%. The cooling load of the suggested system is also 0.709 MW, while the rate of generated electricity and fresh water are 5.73 MW and 7905.7 m 3 /day, respectively. The exergoeconomic analysis also showed that the total cost rate of the system is equal to 25.20 $/GJ, and the levelized cost of electricity is 0.1275 $/kWh. Moreover, the impacts of input parameters on the respective output parameters are analyzed and optimized to reach the best performance of the system. Results indicated that the gas turbine’s pressure ratio should be approximately 8, while the needed values for the basic ammonia concentration and LNG pressure ratio are about 0.53 and 8.23, respectively. 1. Introduction Nowadays, demand for more fresh water and electricity have been increased, particularly in Middle-Eastern countries. Fossil fuels can provide the needed energy to run desalination units and power gen- erators. However, the output harmful gases have raised global con- cerns, leading to the use of renewable sources [1-5]. Recent investiga- tions have reported that the combustion of fossil fuels aiming to generate electricity can contribute to 40% of global CO 2 emissions [6]. Bhattacharyya [7] investigated the dependence of European countries and their policies to reduce their vulnerabilities to fossil fuels. Sepehri et al. [8] evaluated the Nitrite-Oxidizing Bacteria (NOB) intensification process as one of the leading processes to reduce carbon emissions. Zhang et al. [9] and Atilgan et al. [10] also verified the high carbon emissions of these fuels in Korea and Turkey, respectively. That is the reason for which using renewable sources to mitigate the carbon emissions in the multi-generation systems is suggested. In addition to the fossil fuels, the design of the system as well as its location are the two remaining critical factors on the output carbon emissions and the performance of the system [11]. Due to the geo- graphical location, Middle-Eastern countries receive a huge amount of solar radiation every day. Therefore, solar systems have the highest potential to produce a considerable amount of electricity in the region among other renewable resources. In this respect, solar concentrators including solar dishes [12], parabolic trough collectors [13], and solar towers [14] are of much attention since these countries (such as Iran) benefit from high Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) levels of the Sun. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems ,e.g. solar heliostat fields, use reflecting mirrors to concentrate the Sun’s rays for running the in- tegrated system. They can supply enough thermal energy for providing heat to a large thermochemical processes [15]. Nevertheless, renewable solar energy confronts an uphill battle in cloudy or dark climates due to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112042 Received 5 June 2019; Received in revised form 5 September 2019; Accepted 6 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: hossein.pourrahmani@epfl.ch (H. Pourrahmani). Energy Conversion and Management 199 (2019) 112042 Available online 16 September 2019 0196-8904/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T