Abstract
This study proposes a micro-combined heat and power (CHP) system by combining a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and a heat pump (HP) to simultaneously meet the thermal and electrical demand in a residential area. The main components of the system are: the fuel processing unit, fuel cell (FC) unit and HP unit. In the proposed scenario the heat produced by the reforming process and FC is exploited by feeding both the radiant floor heating system and the domestic hot water (DHW).A zero-dimensional model was established in ASPEN PLUS to simulate the HP-integrated PEMFC-based micro-CHP system. An exergy and economic analysis has been performed to evaluate the plant feasibility.In traditional fuel cell systems for residential application, the installation is usually made of a small FC system able to cover the basic electrical load and a large boiler to cover the heating and DHW demand. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system better, we set the boiler-integrated PEMFC-based micro-CHP system as a reference. The results proved the superiority of this system over conventional technologies as regards meeting a high thermal load in the residential sector.
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