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Investigation of the prospect of energy self-sufficiency and technical performance of an integrated PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell), dairy farm and biogas plant system

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  • Guan, Tingting
  • Alvfors, Per
  • Lindbergh, Göran

Abstract

A PEMFC fuelled with hydrogen is known for its high efficiency and low local emissions. However, the generation of hydrogen is always a controversial issue for the application of the PEMFC due to the use of fossil fuel and the possible carbon dioxide emissions. Presently, the PEMFC-CHP fed with renewable fuels, such as biogas, appears to be the most attractive energy converter–fuel combination. In this paper, an integrated PEMFC-CHP, a dairy farm and a biogas plant are studied. A PEMFC-CHP fed with reformate gas from the biogas plant generates electricity and heat to a dairy farm and a biogas plant, while the dairy farm delivers wet manure to the biogas plant as the feedstock for biogas production. This integrated system has been modelled for steady-state conditions by using Aspen Plus®. The results indicate that the wet manure production of a dairy farm with 300 milked cows can support a biogas plant to give 1280MWh of biogas annually. Based on the biogas production, a PEMFC-CHP with a stack having an electrical efficiency of 40% generates 360MWh electricity and 680MWh heat per year, which is enough to cover the energy demand of the whole system while the total efficiency of the PEMFC-CHP system is 82%. The integrated PEMFC-CHP, dairy farm and biogas plant could make the dairy farm and the biogas plant self-sufficient in a sustainable way provided the PEMFC-CHP has the electrical efficiency stated above. The effect of the methane conversion rate and the biogas composition on the system performance is discussed. Moreover, compared with the coal-fired CHP plant, the potentially avoided fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of this self-sufficient system are also calculated.

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  • Guan, Tingting & Alvfors, Per & Lindbergh, Göran, 2014. "Investigation of the prospect of energy self-sufficiency and technical performance of an integrated PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell), dairy farm and biogas plant system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 685-691.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:130:y:2014:i:c:p:685-691
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.04.043
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    5. Xing, Lei & Das, Prodip K. & Song, Xueguan & Mamlouk, Mohamed & Scott, Keith, 2015. "Numerical analysis of the optimum membrane/ionomer water content of PEMFCs: The interaction of Nafion® ionomer content and cathode relative humidity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 242-257.
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    9. Jiang, Dongyue & Yang, Wenming & Tang, Aikun, 2016. "A refractory selective solar absorber for high performance thermochemical steam reforming," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 286-292.
    10. Teymoori Hamzehkolaei, Fatemeh & Amjady, Nima, 2018. "A techno-economic assessment for replacement of conventional fossil fuel based technologies in animal farms with biogas fueled CHP units," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 602-614.
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