Techno-economic analysis of a hybrid photovoltaic system for freshwater and power generation using silica gel
AuthorsAhmed A. Azeez, Adel Nasser, Ahmed Alhusseny, Yasser Mahmoudi, and Hector Iacovides
JournalApplied Thermal Engineering
Date2026-04-15
AbstractThe integration of evaporation cooling with self-adsorption and desorption has become a promising approach for cooling PV panels and generating both electrical power and freshwater. A mathematical framework for photovoltaic panels integrated with silica gel has been introduced to analyse heat and mass transfer processes under different weather conditions. This study presents a novel contribution by examining how different weather conditions, specifically dry weather in Baghdad and wet weather in Kuala Lumpur, affect the performance of photovoltaic (PV) systems utilising the adsorption cooling method. The focus of this study goes beyond the temperature of solar panels, electricity efficiency, and freshwater production; it also includes an economic analysis involving various silica gel thicknesses (1–3 cm). A MATLAB numerical simulation has been developed to assess the impact of weather factors, including solar irradiance, relative humidity, ambient temperature, and wind speed, on the proposed cooling approach. The results indicate that employing a self-adaptive adsorption/desorption technique is more efficient, both technically and economically, during dry weather compared to wet weather. The findings reveal that the maximum reduction in average cell temperature is 8.6 °C, and the most significant improvement in efficiency is 6.18% under dry conditions with a 2 cm thick layer of silica gel. For water harvesting, the maximum amount collected under dry-weather conditions is 2.069 kg/m2 with a 3 cm-thick layer of silica gel. Furthermore, a silica gel thickness of 2 cm during dry weather demonstrates better economic feasibility than other thicknesses, yielding the following results: a net present value (NPV) of 79.17 $, a payback period of 6.48 years, a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of 0.0773 $/kWh, and a levelized cost of water (LCOW) of 0.057 $/L.
Solar power tower plants: a review on the potentials, requirements, characteristics, and components
AuthorsAl-Sarraf, Hayder, Ahmed Alhusseny, and Hassan Mansour Raheem
JournalJournal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry
Date2026-07-16
AbstractConcentrating solar power (CSP) plants, notably solar power tower (SPT) plants, have significant potential to generate carbon-free electricity. This work briefly overviews CSP technologies, whereas SPT is presented in greater detail. In addition, the essential requirements, solar irradiance, land, water needs, and grid proximity to install a CSP plant are explained. This work highlights the significance of integrating direct steam generation (DSG) technology with SPT plants. Depending on the solar field aperture area, operational DSG-based SPT plants can produce more electricity than molten-salt-based SPT plants. Also, a comprehensive review of SPT plant components and the most relevant literature is presented, along with a classification of their operational status. A research proposal is presented to study the off-design factors affecting the operation of SPT and its components. Hence, the literature reveals a lack of understanding of the effects of these factors on the thermal performance of solar receivers and the overall performance of SPT plants.
Solar Power Tower Plants Considering Meteorological Dynamics - Safety and Reliability Optimization
AuthorsHayder Al-Sarraf, Ahmed Alhusseny, and Ramon Zamora
Journal2025 IEEE PES 17th Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC)
Date2026-02-17
AbstractConcentrating solar power plants (CSP) utilize sophisticated technologies to convert solar thermal power into electricity. Particularly, solar power tower plants (SPT) are very promising due to the high concentration ratio and the ability to deliver heat transfer fluid (HTF) at high temperatures. However, solar irradiance fluctuates during the daytime due to various atmospheric effects. That directly affects the thermal performance of the solar receiver, as well as the electric power produced and dispatched to the grid. Additionally, fluctuations in solar irradiance can lead to overheating issues in solar receiver tubes. To address the latter issue, this research proposes a solution by introducing a temperature control valve (TCV) that balances the steam flow distribution across superheater panels based on their respective tube wall temperatures. To guarantee operational safety and reliability, a series of optimization processes has been conducted to identify the optimal circulation factors (CF) between each opposing pair of superheater panels. The results show that the optimum circulation factors from the south to north panels, and between the east and west panels, are 0.25 and 0.1375, respectively. Such an approach contributes not only to decreasing the tube wall temperature below the maximum allowable limit but also slightly improves energy consumption and conservation. Hence, the optimized operation offers a reduction in the net power required to meet the turbine inlet conditions by 0.7731% and in the makeup ratio by 0.782%. Furthermore, the optimization approach ensures that the electricity production remains unchanged compared to the production without optimization, while improving the thermal efficiency of the solar receivers.
Enhancing productivity and cost-effectiveness of single-slope solar stills using a multi-cavity built-in condenser: Experimental and performance analysis
AuthorsHashim Sahar Mohaisen, Ahmed Alhusseny
JournalCleaner Engineering and Technology
Date2025-04-21
AbstractA modified design of a completely passive single-slope solar still has been suggested in the current investigation. To increase the condensation rate and hence increase the unit productivity, a built-in condenser has been attached to the unit. The design of the built-in condenser has further been modified through the utilization of multi-cavity partitions. The systems proposed have been constructed and experimentally tested in Najaf city located at 31°59′29.1″N latitude and 44°20′17.6″E longitude over seven consecutive summer days. A conventional solar still (CS) with identical dimensions was also built and tested under the same operating conditions to assess the productivity and efficiency of the modified designs proposed. The findings reveal that splitting the built-in condenser into two partitions can raise the freshwater harvested there by up to 83.5 % resulting in a 16.7 % upgrade in the overall still productivity despite the 10 % reduction in the freshwater condensed over the glass cover. Compared to the conventional still, integrating a single- (SCCS) or double-cavity condenser still (DCCS) can improve net daytime productivity by up to 24 % and 44.8 %, respectively. A considerable portion of extra-distilled water is also available to collect overnight, where about 15 % and 17.3 % of daytime productivity can be further harvested in the SCCS or DCCS, respectively, thereby causing further improvement in their net daily productivity and thermal efficiency by up to 30.75 % and 55.96 % of what the CS offers. It is also worth reporting that the currently proposed stills have not been found only efficient but economically reasonable as well. The cost analysis conducted has proven their economic feasibility compared to some relevant designs available in the literature. The DCCS has been found the least expensive to produce freshwater with compared to when using the SCCS, which though being a bit more costly but still economically outstanding. Finally, the modified stills exhibited superior exergoeconomic and enviroeconomic performance, with the DCCS achieving 22.10 kWh/$ (energy), 5.8 kWh/$ (exergy), and enviroeconomic savings of $517.27, highlighting its cost-effectiveness and sustainability.
Impact of Weather Conditions Variability on External Receivers in Real-World Direct Steam Generation Solar Power Tower Plants
AuthorsH. Al-Sarraf, Ahmed Alhusseny, R. Zamora
JournalASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications
Date2025-06-30
AbstractSolar power tower plants are promising to decarbonize electricity production, where solar power is concentrated to heat the working heat transfer fluids effectively. However, due to atmospheric effects and cloud cover, such power varies spatially and temporally during the diurnal cycle. Therefore, estimating the net solar thermal power gained by receiver tubes in terms of time and location is highly significant. This research set the foundation for developing the heat irradiance equation as a function of time on external receiver absorbing tubes in the Ivanpah I plant using the solarpilot tool. Furthermore, a modified Gaussian distribution is derived for the incident heat flux over the tube circumference. Compared to the proposed distribution, it is found that both the uniform and basic Gaussian distributions employed in former computational fluid dynamics simulations would result in about 57.1% overestimation of the total solar power received. Multisegment correlations are also established for the temporal profile of axisymmetric heat flux on each side of the receiver. A thorough thermodynamic analysis procedure is also developed and applied under real-world weather conditions to exhibit the potential of the proposed scheme to handle such complicated computations comprehensively and cost-effectively. Based on the proposed procedure, an in-house matlab code is built to numerically predict the instantaneous heat losses from the north-facing evaporator panel tubes and their corresponding steam productivity. The results reveal that the onset of nucleate boiling takes up to 2 h from sunrise to reach, with 70% of the tube length required to start evaporation, which lasts to the rest of the tube. However, superheating can be established once solar intensity is strong enough around midday, occupying up to 12.9% of the tube length. The current research has paved the way for future detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigations of external solar power receivers and has significance in ensuring such systems' reliability and longevity.
Graphite foam structures as an effective means to cool high-performance electronics
AuthorsAhmed Alhusseny , Qahtan Al-Aabidy, Nabeel Al-Zurfi, Adel Nasser, Mohammed Al-Edhari, Hayder Al-Sarraf
JournalKufa Journal of Engineering
Date2024-05-03
AbstractDue to their unique heat transfer features, graphite foams are used in the current analysis to form heat sinks effective enough to dissipate extreme heat generated within high-performance electronics. The heat sinks proposed are formed from foamed-baffles arranged either in parallel or perpendicular to the coolant paths through the staggered slots in between to alleviate the penalty of pressure drop while maintaining high heat dissipation capability. Two different sorts of dielectric coolants namely, air and the FC-3283 electronic liquid developed by 3MTM, have been utilized to directly dissipate the heat generated. The feasibility of the currently proposed heat sinks has been examined numerically based on the volume averaging concept of porous media employing the local thermal non-equilibrium model to account for interstitial heat exchange between the foam solid matrix and the fluid particles flowing across. A wide range of design parameters has been tested including the heat sink configuration along with structural characteristics of the graphite foam used. It has been found that foam baffles oriented perpendicular to the path of coolant flow can dissipate heat by about 50% better than those parallel to it, but with higher pressure losses. It has also been found that heat dissipation capability, for a certain orientation of baffles, can be improved by up to 100% when the foam pore size is doubled with outstanding saving in pressure losses by up to 300%. The impact of operating conditions, including the coolant flowrate and the heat flux applied, has also been inspected. The currently proposed heat sinks have been found efficient to meet the thermal demands of high-performance electronics and sweep away the extreme heat generated there with reasonable cost of pressure drop, where the proper selection of design parameters in light of the operating conditions applied can prevent the emergence of hot spots entirely. Extreme operating conditions, i.e. with heat density of up to 10W/cm2 for air-cooled heat sinks and 100W/cm2 for those cooled with FC-3283, can be well managed when a heat sink is configured from baffles that are oriented perpendicularly to the coolant flow path and formed of graphite foam having low porosity (∅=0.8) and larger pore size.