Design and evaluation of a micro combined cooling, heating, and power system based on polymer exchange membrane fuel cell and thermoelectric cooler

The main purpose of the present study is to propose a combined cooling; heating and power cycle in microscale to be portable, maintenance free, undetectable, environmentally friendly and can provide the energy demand of a single-family when access to energy suppliers is limited. The prime mover of the cycle is a polymer exchange membrane fuel cell. Heat is recovered from a low-quality waste of 80 °C and water condensate is also recovered from the electrochemical products for domestic hot water. A thermoelectric cooler is used as the cooling system. The mathematical models of the fuel cell and the thermoelectric cooler are coded and the results of simulations are validated with the published data in the literature. The results show that the models are qualified and they can be trusted to be combined for proposing a new micro combined cooling, heating, and power system. The results show that the cycle is capable of producing 2.79 kW of electricity, 3.04 kW of heat and 26.8 W of cooling. The overall efficiency of the trigeneration cycle has reached 76.94% and a fuel saving of 43.25% is achieved. The exergy efficiency is 53.86%. In addition, the carbon dioxide production has reduced about 2.58 kg.hr-1. The overall weight of the proposed cycle is estimated less than 100 kg. The exergy analysis introduces the fuel cell as the most exergy destructor.