Performance investigation of a SOFC-primed micro-combined hybrid cooling and power system in hot and humid regions

The provision of cooling in a high-capacity trigeneration system is challenging due to the huge difference in the energy performance between heat-driven and electricity-driven cooling equipment. A micro-scale application can be more attractive, particularly when the recovered waste heat is solely used to drive a desiccant dehumidification cycle in a hybrid cooling system which offers better energy performance for use in hot and humid regions. Thus, given the availability of small-capacity solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), a SOFC-primed micro-combined hybrid cooling and power (mCHyCP) system was developed, and its performance in a 24-h restaurant in Singapore and in Hong Kong was analyzed. It was found that by performing year-round dynamic simulations using TRNSYS, a 10% reduction in the total electricity demand could be achieved in the tropical Singaporean climate compared to a 5% reduction in demand in the sub-tropical Hong Kong climate. This reflected the effect of different seasons on the performance of the mCHyCP system. In addition, at most 24% and 38% reductions in the primary energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for both regions could be achieved, which indicated the potential of such system as a sustainable distributed energy source.