Thermodynamic assessment of an integrated renewable energy multigeneration system including ammonia as hydrogen carrier and phase change material energy storage

[Display omitted] •Comprehensive energy and exergy analysis of a new multi-generation system.•Production of electricity, heating, cooling, ammonia synthesis and desalinated water.•Phase change material as energy storage for uninterrupted energy supply.•Hybrid multi-generation emit 60% less carbon dioxide while exhibiting similar exergy efficiency.•Overall system exergy and energy efficiencies of 18.9% and 28.0% respectively. Sustainable development and effective management of resources has become an integral need of future energy systems. This study considers a unique multi-generation system involving ammonia synthesis using electrolytically produced hydrogen from desalinated water, alongside supply of basic utilities like potable water, heating, cooling, and electricity. The integrated system employs a phase change material based-energy storage unit to provide uninterrupted energy supply to the system. Energy and exergy analysis of the overall and sub-systems based on the first and second law of thermodynamics reveal valuable insights into the performance of such a system. A rigorous analysis of external parameters including environmental temperature, direct normal irradiance on the overall and component energy/exergy efficiencies is performed. The analysis reveals that the utilities demand of a remote area can be met in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly manner using the proposed multi-generation system. An overall system exergy and energy efficiencies of 18.9% and 28.0% respectively are obtained, whereas the sub-systems are also found to have energy efficiencies ranging between 15 and 80%. The highest exergy destruction rates of 25 megawatts and 32 megawatts are observed for the multi-stage flash distillation and the steam Rankine cycle sub-systems respectively. An elementary environmental impact assessment of the same system reveals that the proposed system can help reduce the carbon footprint by almost 60% with no significant compromise on the overall exergy and energy efficiencies.