Assareh, Ehsanolah, Jahanbin, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5727-3200, Izadyar, Nima ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2487-5915, Barati, M and Agarwal, N (2025) Solar-powered tri-generation system integrating organic rankine cycle and absorption chiller for passenger trains energy supply. Energy and Built Environment. ISSN 2666-1233

Abstract

This study investigates the potential of leveraging solar energy to establish an integrated multi-energy production system to supply heating, cooling, and electricity for passenger trains. The proposed tri-generation system combines photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), an absorption chiller, and a water heater unit. The interactions between system components are examined through an exergoeconomic model developed in EES software, supported by a detailed parametric analysis. A two-step multi-objective optimization framework is implemented, integrating response surface methodology (RSM) with an artificial neural network (ANN) to improve optimization accuracy. In this framework, five decision variables and two objective functions—exergy efficiency and system cost rate—are optimized. Economic analysis reveals that the ORC unit and PVT panels incur the highest cost rates, while exergy analysis indicates that the PVT panels, absorption chillers, and evaporators experience the most significant exergy destruction. The optimal system achieves an exergy efficiency of 10.87 % and a cost rate of 1.491 $/h. The second optimization stage using the ANN method based on 100 RSM-optimized points, results in further refinement in both exergy efficiency and cost rate. A real-world case study evaluates the feasibility of implementing the proposed system on a modern passenger train along a route with high solar energy potential, analyzing its performance during a 17-hour journey across five stations and over four seasons under varying weather conditions. The findings contribute to the development of low-carbon rail transport solutions, highlighting the need for future research on energy storage, system scalability, and real-time performance optimization.

Search Google Scholar

Repository staff login