Power optimization of a combined power system consisting of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell and an organic Rankine cycle system

Won-Yong Lee, Minjin Kim, Young-Jun Sohn and Seung-Gon Kim

Energy, 2016, vol. 113, issue C, 1062-1070

Abstract: A combined power system consisting of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEFC) as a topping power system and an ORCS (organic Rankine cycle system) as a bottoming cycle system is proposed and analytically optimized in this paper. In comparison to a LT-PEFC (low-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell), a HT-PEFC based on PA (phosphoric-acid)-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes has the advantage of an increased operating temperature. The waste heat recovered from a HT-PEFC stack can be used to generate more electricity by means of a bottoming power cycle system. An ORCS is widely used to generate electric power from heat recovered at a relatively low temperature. With the models of a HT-PEFC and an ORCS, the power and efficiency of the combined system are analytically derived. The maximum power of the combined system is calculated at full and partial loading of the fuel cell. The maximum power and corresponding efficiency are taken into account for the optimal performance of the ORCS. The results show that the power of the combined system is 17–21% higher than that of the HT-PEFC system without a heat recovery system.

Keywords: HT-PEFC based combined system; ORCS; Power optimization; PA-doped PBI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544216310179
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:113:y:2016:i:c:p:1062-1070

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.07.093

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().