A review study of various High-Temperature thermodynamic cycles for multigeneration applications

Multigeneration high-temperature systems are a type of energy system that use high-temperature heat sources to produce multiple forms of energy simultaneously. They offer several advantages over traditional energy systems, including higher energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and lower operating costs. Power cycles are more efficient at higher temperatures. However, material and technical restrictions make operating beyond a certain temperature challenging. Multigeneration high-temperature systems are reviewed in this study. The focus is on cycles with temperatures above 550 °C from fossil fuels, solar heat, and molten salts as heat storage mediums. According to the literature, only gas turbine plants, supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam, and supercritical CO₂ cycles are relevant for this temperature. Thus, these cycles are analyzed and reviewed in terms of their applications for multigeneration of power, heat, cooling, hydrogen, and freshwater. It is found that multigeneration systems based on the supercritical CO₂ cycle are most efficient compared to others, while the ultra-supercritical steam cycle is still more efficient than the gas turbine cycle. Multigenerational supercritical steam cycles seldom worked, and this is a gap in the literature. A huge potential, much more than that already addressed by former studies, exists for multi-vector supply by supercritical CO₂ cycles.