Evaluation of a Triple Effect Absorption Air Conditioning System Integrated With PEM Fuel Cell

In this paper, a parametric study of the TEARS integrated with PEM fuel cell is conducted in order to investigate the effect of different operating parameters on the COPs and utilization factor of the integrated system. It is found that when the inlet temperature of the HTG is increased, the energetic and exergetic COPs vary in an exponential form from 0.56 to1.86, and 0.28 to 0.964, respectively, and the heat input decreases from 34.4 kW to 9.802 kW. When the high pressure of the TEARS system is increased, both the COPs decrease, ranging from 4.4% to 9.9%, while the heat input increases by 6%. Also, an increase in the cooling load of the TEARS for different heat input results in the variation of the COPs from 0.17 to 3.4. Moreover, a parametric study for PEM fuel cell is carried out at an optimum practical operating condition of cooling load of 20 kW and heat input of 9.802 kW for TEARS, which results in the energetic and exergetic COPs of 1.86, and 0.964, respectively. The optimum area of the cell is found to be varying from 0.436 to 54.5 m2 for different current densities pressures and temperatures. However, increase in the area of the cell resulted in the higher efficiency of the cell, ranging from 27.5% to 42%. Moreover, when the molar flow rate is increased, the utilization factor of the system is found to be decreasing exponentially ranging from 77% to 35%. This study reveals that an integrated air conditioning system with fuel cell is an attractive economical and environmental solution when compared with conventional systems of high electricity and natural gas prices.