Route planning of heat supply piping in a fuel cell energy network

Abstract

A route planning program of the hot-water piping of a fuel cell energy network for a central system and distributed system has been developed. A city area model of 74 buildings in Sapporo was applied to the route planning program, and quantity of heat loss of the hot-water piping and piping route was investigated. Consequently, compared with the central system, the piping heat loss annually of the distributed system is 75%. When there is less than ±30% load fluctuation, compared with where there is no load fluctuation, heat loss is cut by 6% on average. Moreover, compared with when solar module equipment is not connected, there is an average 2% reduction of heat release at the time of ±50% output change of the solar module equipment. © 2009 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.