Investigation of a New Holistic Energy System for a Sustainable Airport with Green Hydrogen Fuels

The advancement of sustainable solutions through renewable energy sources is crucial to mitigate carbon emissions. This study reports a novel system for an airport utilizing geothermal, biomass, and PV solar energy sources. The proposed system is capable of producing five useful outputs, including electrical power, hot water, hydrogen, kerosene, and space heating. In open literature, there has been no system reported with these combination of energy sources and outputs. The system is considered for Vancouver Airport, using the most recent statistics available. The geothermal sub-system introduced is also unique, which utilizes carbon dioxide captured, as the heat transfer medium for power generation and heating. The present system is considered using thermodynamic analysis through energetic, and exergetic approaches to determine the variation in system performance based on different annual climate conditions. Biomass gasification and kerosene production are evaluated based on the Aspen Plus models. The efficiencies of the geothermal system with the carbon dioxide reservoir are found to have energetic and energetic efficiencies of 78 % and 37 % respectively. The total hydrogen production projection is obtained to be 452 tons on an annual basis. The kerosene production mass flow rate is reported as 0.112 kg/s. The overall energetic and exergetic efficiencies of the system are found to be 41.8 % and 32.9 % respectively. This study offers crucial information for the aviation sector to adopt sustainable solutions more effectively.