The exergy method of energy systems analysis

Serious water pollution and the exhausting of fossil resources have become worldwide urgent issues yet to be solved. Solar energy driving photocatalysis processes based on semiconductor catalysts is considered to be the most promising technique for the remediation of wastewater. However, the relatively low photocatalytic efficiency remains a critical limitation for the practical use of the photocatalysts. To solve this problem, numerous strategies have been developed for the preparation of advanced photocatalysts. Particularly, incorporating a semiconductor with various functional components from atoms to individual semiconductors or metals to form a composite catalyst have become a facile approach for the design of high-efficiency catalysts. Herein, the recent progress in the development of novel photocatalysts for wastewater treatment via various methods in the sight of composite techniques are systematically discussed. Moreover, a brief summary of the current challenges and an outlook for the development of composite photocatalysts in the area of wastewater treatment are provided.

Advanced Design and Synthesis of Composite Photocatalysts for the Remediation of Wastewater: A Review

Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Coupled with Production of Value-Added Chemicals

A review on recent development of thermal performance enhancement methods of flat plate solar water heater

A hybrid molten carbonate fuel cell and parabolic trough solar collector, combined heating and power plant with carbon dioxide capturing process

The overuse of fossil fuels in real life applications has caused their rapid depletion and fast climate change due to global warming and thus access to eco-friendly energy resources has become essential to meet the growing demand of clean energy. With this view, solar energy has proven to be an effective alternative and clean source of energy for the sustainable development of the society worldwide. Solar energy is a cheap, abundant and everlasting source of renewable energy and thus it can be integrated with different systems deals with energy consumption to overcome the dependency of present society on conventional fuels. Such integration of solar energy has given an opportunity for several studies based on the energy and exergy approaches. The energy analysis is very crucial in the study of process effectiveness while the exergetic analysis is another important tool to investigate the realistic behaviour of process involving various energy losses and internal irreversibility. The main objective of this article is to bring out valuable recommendations for wide exploitation of solar energy systems for different applications, from a thermodynamics perspective. Therefore, the present article has summarized the previous findings on energy and exergy analyses of different solar energy systems (solar drying, solar air conditioning and refrigeration, solar water heating, solar cooking and solar power generation through solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar power techniques used for various heat and power generation applications).

Vashimant Sharma

Papers

Energy and exergy analyses of various typical solar energy applications: A comprehensive review