Implementation of a heat recovery unit in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system

Application of thermoelectric cooler as a power generator in waste heat recovery from a PEM fuel cell – An experimental study

“…Another study was conducted by Hwang at al. [10] in the field of heat recovery from a fuel cell by means of a heat recovery unit. They showed that the overall system efficiency is 82% based on the lower heating value of hydrogen.…”

Transient power characteristic measurement of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell generator

“…A temperature sensor monitors the stack coolant temperature and provides feedbacks to control the speed of the cooling fan. In the present work, the stack coolant inlet temperature (SCIT) is controlled to 57 C that ensures the operation temperature of the fuel cell stack around 80 C [33]. Note that the simulation results revealed that the temperature difference between the reaction site and the coolant contact boundary in a PEM fuel cell can be up to 20 C [9,10].…”

Parametric analysis of an irreversible proton exchange membrane fuel cell/absorption refrigerator hybrid system

“…Relatively, there are fewer studies done on the exhaust heat conversion and management aspect. It has been reported that the PEMFC produces approximately equivalent amount of electric power output and waste heat under normal operating conditions, that is, up to half of the chemical energy in the hydrogen will be finally dissipated as waste heat [10]. On the other hand, the waste heat dissipated in the PEMFC will result in a temperature rise that may affect the normal operation of the PEMFC and should be immediately removed.…”

“…Chen et al [11] reported a hybrid power system by coupling a semiconductor thermoelectric generator to a PEMFC to convert the produced waste heat for additional power production, and the numerical expressions for equivalent efficiency and power output of the hybrid system were analytically derived. Hwang et al [10,12] developed a heat recovery unit and implemented it in a PEM fuel cell cogeneration system to simultaneously produce electricity and hot water, the maximum efficiency as a combination of power output and heat was found to be larger than 80% based on the lower heating value of hydrogen.…”