Performance comparison of solar-powered cogeneration and trigeneration systems via energy and exergy analyses

The study focuses on the comparison of solar-operated cogeneration and trigeneration energy systems. The prime objective of the system is to develop a novel solar thermal driven combined heat and power system at the first stage and then to extend the concept for the simultaneous production of electric power, process heating, and cooling at the second stage. The computed results present the energetic output which increased from 58% to 63% while shifting the mode of operation from cogeneration to trigeneration. The combined setup for the trigeneration exhibited higher efficiency of 66.63% in comparison to the cogeneration setup of 34.5%.