Economic Viability Study of a Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Cogeneration System for Household Application by an Optimization Approach.

Abstract

Economic viability on using a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) as a cogeneration unit for household application is investigated. The PEFC cogeneration unit is installed with a thermal storage tank. An optimization approach is adopted to rationally evaluate the viability. Design variables such as equipment capacities are determined together with the system's operational strategies so as to minimize the annual total cost subject to satisfy all the possible energy demands. This optimization problem is formulated as a large scale mixed-integer linear programming problem by using appropriate approximation. Numerical studies are carried out with some parameters such as energy efficiency and capital unit cost of the PEFC cogeneration unit, unit cost of natural gas energy charge and load factor of household energy demands. Through the studies, it is found that the relationships between the ecomomic viability of PEFC cogeneration system and the aforementioned parameters are clarified.