A Characteristic Investigation Of A Combined System Of Solar Hydrogen Production And A Fuel Cell

Abstract

A distributed energy system with the function of solar energy storage is proposed. Methanol and solar energy absorbed by trough receiver serve as the system input, which generate pure hydrogen through methanol steam reforming. The electricity power generated by proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) acts as the system output. The tubular receiver divided into vaporizer channel and reformer channel is mounted along the focal line of the trough receiver innovatively. Heat needed by vaporizer and reformer are all from solar energy. The influences of different solar radiation flux, mole ratio of water/methanol and inlet velocity on methanol steam reforming integrating solar energy are studied. The overall efficiency and output power of the combined system are analyzed under the condition of continuous operation for 24 hours. In addition, a comparison of electric power generation between the combined system with the separate power generation of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and thermal solar power generation is studied. The results indicate that the combined system not only has advantage in efficiency under different output power, but also surmounts the defect of intermittent solar energy. The influence of varying solar radiation flux on the operating performance of the system is also obtained.

Keywords:

• Solar energy
• Methanol steam reforming
• Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
• Hydrogen energy
• Distributed energy system

Acknowledgments

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