Integration of a biomass-fueled Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell system and a Vanadium Redox Battery as a power generation and storage system

Abstract

A novel integrated system of a biomass gasification (BG) with a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) and a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRB) is proposed by focusing on power generation and storage performance analysis. Effect of some key parameters including, current density, voltage, gasification efficiency, Low Heating Value, High Heating Value, Oxygen Equivalence Ratio, and efficiency have taken into consideration. Also, a water–gas shift reactor, as well as a preferential oxidation reactor are employed to purify syngas for using in the PEMFC. The richest H2 amount and lower CO were obtained from the sugarcane in which it provides 32 mol% and 18 mol%, respectively. A sensitivity analysis of the load level impact on the PEMFC system has been studied in which at 5 kW electrical load, the electrical and thermal efficiencies of the integrated system have an estimated 22% and 47%, respectively. From evaluations, it is also found that by applying the waste heat recovery system, the overall efficiency of the system will be improved by up to 58%. Moreover, the results have shown that the proposed system has an excellent potential for employing in distributed generation applications, individually in rural areas where plenty of feedstock sources are available.