Design and assessment of a new solar-based biomass gasification system for hydrogen, cooling, power and fresh water production utilizing rice husk biomass

•New renewable hydrogen production system utilizing rice husk biomass.•Multigeneration of clean hydrogen, cooling, freshwater and electricity.•Peak hydrogen production rate reaches 0.3 kg/s.•Overall performance entails energetic and exergetic ratios of 46.8% and 47.8%. A new solar energy-based rice husk gasification system is introduced that produces renewable hydrogen as well as cooling, freshwater and electricity. The hydrogen production rate under design operating conditions is 0.0603 kg/s. Also, the peak rate of hydrogen production at a higher biomass feed rate of 5 kg/s is evaluated to be 0.3 kg/s. Moreover, the performance of the system introduced is evaluated through comprehensive thermodynamic analyses. The overall design efficiency considering energetic performance is 46.8% and the corresponding exergetic efficiency becomes 47.8%. In addition to this, the net rate of energy production attained by the combined cycle is 12.9 MW. Also, the system introduced provides a rate of cooling of 911.4 kW and a freshwater production rate of 410.9 kg/s. Higher steam to biomass and lower oxygen to feed ratios are found to improve system performances. Several other sensitivity analyses are conducted to investigate the performance under varying conditions.