Basim Belgasim

Bio: Basim Belgasim is an academic researcher from University of Benghazi. The author has contributed to research in topics: Solar energy & Desalination. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 11 publications receiving 104 citations. Previous affiliations of Basim Belgasim include Northumbria University.

The potential of concentrating solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Libya

Abstract: The rapid increase in energy demand and the limited resources of fossil fuel as well as the environmentally damaging effects, drive the world to find new options for sustainable electricity generation, which is represented by renewable energies. Concentrating solar power (CSP) is one of the most promising technologies in the field of electricity generation to tackle this issue with a competitive cost in the future. This paper presents an investigation of the potential of implementation of CSP plants in Libya. The socio-economic context, current energy situation of the country and different types of CSP plants are discussed. Moreover, an assessment of site parameters required for CSP plants including solar resources, land use and topography, water resources and grid connections are investigated in detail. In addition, thermo-economic simulation of a 50 MW parabolic trough power plant is performed. The simulation is conducted based on meteorological data measured by the weather station installed at the Centre for Solar Energy Research and Studies (CSERS) in Tajoura city. The performance results are compared with the reference plant Andasol-1 in Spain. Even though the proposed plant is located on the North coast where solar resources are at their minimum compared with other regions of the country, the outcome of the study proves that Libya is not only suitable but it can be economically competitive in the implementation of CSP technology.

Dynamic analysis and sizing optimization of a pumped hydroelectric storage-integrated hybrid PV/Wind system: A case study

Abstract: The intermittent nature of variable renewable energy resources in conjunction with the fluctuating energy demand of load require using an efficient long-term energy storage means. Pumped Hydroelectric Storage (PHS) has proved its commercial viability as electricity storage technology and eligibility to be coupled with the Renewable Energy Systems (RESs). This paper proposes a simple and efficient procedure for optimal sizing of PHS-integrated hybrid PV/Wind power system for providing sustainable supply of electricity to an urban community in Brack city ( 27 ° 32 ' N , 14 ° 17 ' E ), Libya. The sizing procedure is considered as a constrained optimization problem. The constraints are developed to consider the operating conditions and the output uncertainty of RESs. The sizing algorithm and optimization procedure are explicitly described. Different operating scenarios were considered to identify the optimal size of the hybrid PV/Wind energy system and PHS. Using the measured date of climate conditions and load consumption, the energy production for different sizes of solar PV arrays and wind turbine farms were estimated by System Advisory Model (SAM) software. Based on the Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE), the optimum power capacity ratio of PV array to wind turbines farm was 1:5. For the system of optimal size, PHS contribute with a share of 15 % in covering the annual load energy. The obtained results revealed that coupling the hybrid RESs with PHS is cost competitive and reliable alternative for providing sustainable energy supply to urban areas of suitable topographical conditions and high potential of renewable energy resources.

A novel small dynamic solar thermal desalination plant with a fluid piston converter

Abstract: An innovative small dynamic water desalination plant was developed and tested under laboratory conditions. The system is a combination of a heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector, conventional condenser and novel fluid piston converter. Saline water is boiled and turned into vapour in the manifold of the solar collector. A small fraction of the solar energy supplied to the plant is used to drive the fluid piston converter. Oscillations of the fluid piston periodically change the volume and pressure in the plant. For the duration of approximately half of the periodic cycle the pressure in the plant drops below the atmospheric level causing flash boiling of saline water in the manifold of the solar collector. Generated vapour is turned into fresh water in the condenser which is surrounded by a cooling jacket with saline water. The flash boiling effect improves the fresh water production capacity of the plant. Additionally, the fluid piston converter drives a pump which provides lifting of saline water from a well and pumps this through the cooling jacket of the condenser to a saline water storage tank. This tank replenishes saline water in the manifold of the solar collector. Experimental investigations demonstrated the saline water self-circulation capability of the plant and increase in the fresh water production compared to the static mode of operation. Experimental data was also used to calibrate the mathematical model of the plant. Comparison of theoretical and experimental information demonstrates that the model accurately predicts the performance of the plant. The proposed novel system with greater fresh water production capacity has a simple design and is easy to manufacture using low cost materials and therefore can be mass deployed for small scale saline water pumping and desalination across different regions with the relatively high solar radiation and shortage in the drinking water supply.

Experimental performance evaluation of a parabolic dish solar geyser using a generalized approach for decentralized applications

Abstract: Solar water heating is one of the established technologies with several designs. However, the use of deep parabolic dishes for continuous water heating is limited. This paper explores the use of a stand-alone manually tracked parabolic dish solar water geyser (PDSG) to generate hot water in domestic and small commercial places instantaneously. For this purpose, a solar geyser is tested for its thermal performance using three different flow rates and two configurations of the truncated cone receiver (a hollow coil). Next, optical analysis of a PDSG is performed using the ray-tracing method. Following, a generalized approach/method is suggested for the performance evaluation of a PDSG. The experimental results show that the proposed solar geyser can instantaneously generate hot water of sufficient temperature (~50–60 °C) for immediate consumption. Lastly, to gain insight into the economic aspects of the proposed PDSG, the Levelized cost of heat (LCOH) and water heating (LCWH) are determined and compared. The results reveal that a decrease of ~2.7% and ~1.1% in the LCOH and LCWH, respectively, is possible with the proposed PDSG with an epoxy coated receiver and glass cover compared to the PDSG-non coated receiver for the flow rate of 20 kg/hr, respectively.

Thermodynamic Analysis and Sizing of a Small Scale Solar Thermal Power System Based on Organic Rankine Cycle

Abstract: This paper presents the feasibility analysis of a small-scale low-temperature solar organic Rankine cycle power system. The heat transfer fluid for running the organic Rankine cycle system is hot water with a temperature of 120 °C provided by an array of evacuated tube solar collectors. The performance of the solar organic Rankine cycle system was investigated using two different working fluids over a wide range of the evaporation temperature. Technical and economic indicators such as the required solar collector aperture area, the total heat transfer surface area of the heat exchangers and the volume flow ratio between the outlet and inlet of the expander are among the key parameters used to evaluate the solar organic Rankine cycle. Thermolib toolbox 5.2 in conjunction with MATLAB/Simulink was used to predict the variation of the system performance. The results showed that the solar organic Rankine cycle system is able to achieve an overall system efficiency of 6.75% using a relatively low-temperature heat source. The results also showed that the solar organic Rankine cycle system requires smaller evacuated tube solar collector and heat exchanger areas when R245fa is used as the working fluid.

Latest developments on TES and CSP technologies – Energy and environmental issues, applications and research trends

Abstract: The concentrating solar power (CSP) technology is promising especially for countries having an abundance of solar resources in order to secure their energy supply, reduce their carbon footprint and consequently achieve sustainable development goals. Furthermore, the thermal energy storage (TES), when combined with CSP plants, offers the opportunity to make these plants economically competitive and reliable during their operation and could balance supply and demand of energy by reducing the undesirable impacts of the solar energy intermittency. This paper presents a review on TES systems and an update of the latest developments of different technologies of TES that are commercially available or under investigation. Various aspects are discussed including the limits of each technology, different new concepts to enhance the heat transfer efficiency, the principal applications and the environmental issues associated with the integration of TES in solar thermal CSP plants. The results of the current review have revealed that despite the important thermo-physical characteristics of latent heat and thermo-chemical heat storage systems, such as high TES density, they are still at a laboratory level and their development is still far from any proven design and material to be transferred to a commercial scale, especially for high temperature applications. In contrast, the liquid sensible heat storage (SHS) systems are the most mature and the most used in CSP plants. Indeed, according to a census survey that we carried out, based on data compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Global Energy Observatory (GEO) about CSP projects around the world that are either operational or under development, 45.5% of the operational CSP plants worldwide (i.e. 45.1% of the total installed capacity) are equipped with TES and 95.6% of them (i.e. 99.8% of the total installed capacity) use liquid SHS materials due to their reliability, low cost and easy operation. Economically, the integration of TES systems into large scale CSP plants is a cost-effective way for the widespread deployment of CSP technology, by reducing the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), especially for solar power tower (SPT) technology over parabolic trough collector (PTC) one, thanks to the high temperature differential occurred in the storage system that reduces the amount of required TES materials. However, owing to its longer commercial operational experience and less technical and financial risks, the PTC is currently the most commonly used technology in CSP plants. Regarding the environmental side, a case study about Moroccan CSP has quantitatively highlighted the environmental potential of integrating TES in CSP plants for electricity production in order to mitigate significantly the greenhouse gases emissions.

Catastrophic analysis on the stability of a large dish solar thermal power generation system with wind-induced vibration

Abstract: In order to solve the problem about determination of stability of dish solar concentrator system, a computational fluid dynamics software STAR-CCM+ is used to investigate the lift coefficient and the drag coefficient of the concentrator under different wind attack angles and height angles. Based on the simulation results of the lift coefficient and the drag coefficient of the concentrator, some main steps to can be expressed as follows: (1) A mechanical model of dish solar concentrator system under different wind attack angles and height angles is established and the moment equation of the dish solar concentrator is used as a potential function to establish the cusp catastrophe model of instability of a dish solar concentrator. The stability criterion based on the lift-drag ratio Kld is proposed based on the bifurcation point set. If −1.54 1.54, the system is unstable. (2) The stability of dish solar concentrator system is determined, and the critical stability state of the dish solar concentrator system is achieved. The rationality of the method is verified by the pitch moment coefficient.

Water vapor sorption performance of ACF-CaCl2 and silica gel-CaCl2 composite adsorbents

Abstract: A novel composite adsorbent of host matrix of CaCl 2 was developed to increase mass transfer area and enhance adsorption performance for air-to-water system under hot and humid conditions. The host matrix is activated carbon fiber felts (ACF FELT) fabricated by viscose-based fibers. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Micromeritics ASAP2020 were adopted to observe the micro characteristics of matrix. Inductive coupled plasma emission spectrometer (ICP) was used to test the quality of impregnation and water crystallization carried by calcium chloride in synthesis. The preparation processes, pore structures, quantities of crystallization water of calcium chloride and impregnated salt, as well as the non-equilibrium adsorption performances were studied, and the results were compared with the composite adsorbents with SC matrix. Research shows that ACF is more suitable as the matrix of composite adsorbents, and ACF30 has the best sorption performance of water uptake 1.7 g/g, which is three times more than silica gel-CaCl 2 . Furthermore, ACF compound can be retested without rupture or carryover. Coefficient of adsorption rate of water uptake was obtained using Linear Driving Force model.

The potential of concentrating solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Libya

Abstract: The rapid increase in energy demand and the limited resources of fossil fuel as well as the environmentally damaging effects, drive the world to find new options for sustainable electricity generation, which is represented by renewable energies. Concentrating solar power (CSP) is one of the most promising technologies in the field of electricity generation to tackle this issue with a competitive cost in the future. This paper presents an investigation of the potential of implementation of CSP plants in Libya. The socio-economic context, current energy situation of the country and different types of CSP plants are discussed. Moreover, an assessment of site parameters required for CSP plants including solar resources, land use and topography, water resources and grid connections are investigated in detail. In addition, thermo-economic simulation of a 50 MW parabolic trough power plant is performed. The simulation is conducted based on meteorological data measured by the weather station installed at the Centre for Solar Energy Research and Studies (CSERS) in Tajoura city. The performance results are compared with the reference plant Andasol-1 in Spain. Even though the proposed plant is located on the North coast where solar resources are at their minimum compared with other regions of the country, the outcome of the study proves that Libya is not only suitable but it can be economically competitive in the implementation of CSP technology.

Analytical characteristic equation of nanofluid loaded active double slope solar still coupled with helically coiled heat exchanger

Abstract: Nanofluids are embryonic fluids and promising thermal energy carrier in solar thermal applications due to their superior thermo-physical and optical properties. In present communication, an analytical expression of the characteristic equation of two different systems viz. (A) active double slope solar still coupled with series connected partially covered N photovoltaic thermal flat plate collectors (N-PVT-FPC) and operating without helical heat exchanger; and (B) active double slope solar still coupled with series connected partially covered N-PVT-FPC and operating with helical heat exchanger has been developed. Analysis has been executed for 0.25 % concentration of CuO, Al2O3, TiO2-metallic nanoparticles; four number of collectors; 100 kg basin fluid (BF/NF) mass and 0.03 kg/s mass flow rate. The maximum values of instantaneous gain thermal energy efficiency ( CuO 80.18 % ; Al 2 O 3 71.67 % ; TiO 2 74.92 % ) and instantaneous loss thermal energy efficiency ( CuO 64.12 % ; Al 2 O 3 59.11 % ; TiO 2 64.77 % ) of the system (A) are found to be significantly higher in comparison the basefluid ( gain 66.81 % ;loss 52.42 % ) . The productivity of system (A) and system (B) are ( CuO 32 % ; Al 2 O 3 19.23 % ; TiO 2 6.47 % ) and ( CuO 31.49 % ; Al 2 O 3 26.4 % ; TiO 2 7.26 % ) respectively, higher in comparison to the case using basefluid (water). Moreover, thermal energy and exergy; and thermal exergy efficiency has been evaluated for both the systems.