Design and management strategies for low emission building-scale Multi Energy Systems

Multi energy systems are effective means to move toward a decentralized low-carbon system. Several energy vectors can be integrated together according to a multi energy system framework, such as electricity, heat, and hydrogen, being the latter one of the most promising energy carriers to support widespread use of such energy systems for a number of applications. In this paper, a methodology to optimally design a multi energy system is applied to different future low-carbon scenarios. A wide range of technologies is studied, including trigenerative components such as a gas microturbine, a Solide Oxide Fuel Cell, and a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. Several scenarios are analyzed accounting for environmental and technical targets and considering the variability of costs of hydrogen technologies. Results highlight that building-scale configurations that allow simultaneous environmental and economic benefits consider different storage technologies and a trigeneration plant based on Solide Oxide Fuel Cells. The integration of hydrogen technologies and storage systems are thus effective solutions to access further reduction in terms of both primary energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The availability of green hydrogen, considering future cost projections, allows achieving the lowest carbon footprint at relatively low costs.