Evaluation of solid oxide fuel cell based polygeneration system in residential areas integrating with electric charging and hydrogen fueling stations for vehicles

Abstract

This study proposes a design of polygeneration system based on solid oxide fuel cell to supply electricity, hot water, cooling, and hydrogen. This system also integrates the stationary supply for electric and hydrogen cars. The polygeneration system is developed based on energy, economic and environment simulation models by taking into account its application for the residential building. Four system configurations were designed based on the grid connection and the vehicle type and subsequently evaluated to determine the performance of the system in regard to the criteria such as efficiency, reliability, primary energy saving, cost saving as well as carbon dioxide reduction. Moreover, a strategy of selling the available hydrogen was also considered to analyze the competitiveness of the proposed system with the conventional separated system. Depending on these criteria, analysis of fuel cell size with respect to the coverage of demands was also conducted.The proposed system achieved primary energy savings, cost saving and emission reduction of about 73%, 50% and 70% respectively. The hydrogen selling strategy has a significant effect in reducing energy cost close to 51% for the configuration with electric vehicle station.