A Comparative Energy and Exergy Analysis Between Organic Rankine Cycle and Kalina Cycle System 11 for the Waste Heat Recovery of a PEM Fuel Cell Power Station

Abstract

In this study, the performance analysis of waste heat recovery systems in a power generation system consisting of 13000 Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) in a stack has been investigated. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and Kalina Cycle System 11 (KCS11) as bottoming cycles to convert generated waste heat of stack into electricity were compared with each other in a defined hybrid system. The improvement of system with an exact energy and exergy analysis after utilizing the waste heat in the hybrid system has been analyzed. Results show that the energy efficiency of combined system using Organic Rankine Cycle and Kalina Cycle System 11 increase by about 5% and 1.75% respectively. In addition, exergy analysis results indicate that exergy efficiency of combined system using Organic Rankine Cycle and Kalina Cycle System 11 increases by about 4% and 1.5% respectively. The total exergy destruction rate obtained for the hybrid power systems is 235.5 kW when ORC is used and 329.7 kW when KCS11 is used respectively. Results show that in presented systems ORC has higher energy and exergy efficiencies than KCS11 but different used working fluids and equipment of systems must also be considered from an economical point of view.