Exergy-economic assessment of a hybrid power, cooling and heating generation system based on SOFC

Rahim Zahedi; Mohammad Mahdi Forootan; Rouhollah Ahmadi; Mansour Keshavarzzadeh

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16164

Exergy-economic assessment of a hybrid power, cooling and heating generation system based on SOFC

Heliyon. 2023 May 19;9(5):e16164. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16164. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Rahim Zahedi¹, Mohammad Mahdi Forootan², Rouhollah Ahmadi², Mansour Keshavarzzadeh³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Renewable Energy and Environmental, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.
³ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

In this research, a combined cycle using a solid oxide fuel cell system, a single-stage H₂O-NH₃ absorption chiller and a residential hot water HX, is developed for the electricity production, hot water and cooling all at the same time, and it is studied from an exergy, energy, and exergoeconomic standpoint. Performance of system under the design condition is analyzed and the mathematical model is simulated. After analyzing the results in the initial input mode, changing the fuel cell current density effect and fuel utilization factor on the system efficiency is evaluated. The result indicates that total energy is 4.418 kW, the total exergy efficiency is 37.8%. And the overall irreversibility is 1.650 kW. On the other hand, the air HX, fuel cell and water HX are designed as elements that must be given more attention than others from the exergoeconomic perspective, because they have nearly the most amount of price compared to other parts.

Keywords: Exergoeconomic; Exergy; Hybrid system; Parametric analysis; SOFC.