| Continued reliance on fossil fuel energy has approached its physical limits due to increase in population and industrial activities. The global community is looking towards new sources of energy and utilization of existing energy sources effectively and efficiently. Many researchers have reported their views on alternative sources such as sustainable solar energy. The utilization of renewable energy, such as solar energy, offers a wide range of exceptional benefits.;One concept for the use of a solar energy is to combine solar energy with fossil fuel. This combination, known as a solar-fossil hybrid, can produce electrical energy or high-temperature industrial process heat. The mix of solar and fossil fuel energies creates a link between current fossil-fuel-based technologies and future solar chemical technologies. It is desirable to consider developing hybrid solar/fossil fuels and it is important to study how fossil fuel (methanol) can be used efficiently and effectively than conventional utilization, by means of renewable energy such as solar energy.;The most efficient utilization of the primary energy is in such case possible by cogeneration systems that are able to produce simultaneously power, heating, and also cooling with the possibility of output ratios of individual energy flows. These combined energy systems may be named as tri-generation which is a combined production of electricity, heat, and cold. Present study has been found that the trigeneration cycle with indirect combustion of methanol has a overall exergy efficiency of 61%. It is 7% higher than that of the conventional trigeneration cycle. |
