Comparative performance and thermoeconomic analyses of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane based two hybrid systems

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to compare the two systems in terms of the thermoeconomic and the performance. The first one is called hybrid I and consists of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane and thermocapacitive cycle. The second one is named hybrid II, which is composed of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane and thermoelectric generator. Thermocapacitive cycle and thermoelectric generator have various advantages, such as generally lower cost and higher power density. So, they have good potential to utilize waste heat. The performance parameters of the considered hybrid systems include power density, energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and exergy destruction rate. The results have shown that hybrid I is more advantageous than hybrid II. The maximum power density values for hybrid I and hybrid II are obtained to be 2536.91W and 2049.62W while their energy efficiencies are 77.4% and 76.8%, respectively.