Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002

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Energy
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Modeling and off-design performance of a 1 kWe HT-PEMFC

(high temperature-proton exchange membrane fuel cell)-based
residential micro-CHP (combined-heat-and-power) system for
Danish single-family households
Alexandros Arsalis*, Mads P. Nielsen, Sren K. Kr
Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Pontoppidanstrde 101, 9220 Aalborg , Denmark

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A novel proposal for the modeling and operation of a micro-CHP (combined-heat-and-power) residential
Received 10 May 2010 system based on HT-PEMFC (High Temperature-Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) technology is
Received in revised form described and analyzed to investigate its commercialization prospects. An HT-PEMFC operates at
25 November 2010
elevated temperatures, as compared to Naon-based PEMFCs and therefore can be a signicant candi-
Accepted 7 December 2010
date for cogeneration residential systems. The proposed system can provide electric power, hot water,
Available online 8 January 2011
and space heating for a typical Danish single-family household. A complete fuel processing subsystem,
with all necessary BOP (balance-of-plant) components, is modeled and coupled to the fuel cell stack
Keywords:
PBI membrane
subsystem. The micro-CHP system is simulated in LabVIEW environment to provide the ability of Data
HT-PEMFC systems Acquisition of actual components and thereby more realistic design in the future. A part-load study has
Micro-CHP been conducted to indicate performance characteristics at off-design conditions. The system is sized to
Residential systems provide realistic dimensioning of the actual system.
Fuel processing 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction allow conversion of natural gas to hydrogen. Several BOP (Balance-

Fuel cell-based stationary power generation offers a great
market opportunity, because the fuel cell technology is capable of
achieving higher efciencies, with lower emissions as compared to
conventional power systems [1e3]. Residential fuel cell systems
can be grid-interconnected to allow power ow from/to the grid as
needed. This design offers greater exibility than a stand-alone
system, and is very attractive if the incoming power is produced by
renewable energy sources, such as wind power [3,4]. This means
that when cheap wind power can be produced, the fuel cell system
can operate at a minimum load and therefore reduce the fuel
consumption. A fuel cell-based micro-CHP (Combined-Heat-and-
Power) system converts on-site the chemical energy in a fuel, e.g.
natural gas, into electrical power and heat, as required by the
household demand. The range of energy demand for a Danish
household in terms of electricity and heat is 0.5e5.0 kWe, and
2e10 kWth, respectively. Therefore, for this system conguration,
a fuel-processing unit must be coupled with the fuel cell stack, to
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 45 9940 9240; fax: 45 9815 1411.
E-mail address: aar@et.aau.dk (A. Arsalis).
Of-Plant) components are needed for the controlling and smooth
operation of the system, while heat exchangers are necessary for
the thermal management of the system. The thermal management
of the system includes heating/cooling of components (e.g. steam
reforming), and also heat recovery to satisfy the residential load
prole (e.g. space heating).
The operating temperature in a fuel cell stack is considered an
important factor to the efciency and the degradation of the
membrane. High operating temperatures reduce the cooling
requirements, simplify water management and lessen contamina-
tion problems. An HT-PEMFC (high temperature-proton exchange
membrane fuel cell) utilizes a PBI (Polybenzimidazole) membrane,
operating at temperatures between 160
C and 200
C. An HT-
PEMFC is therefore an ideal match for a micro-CHP system, because
not only the rates of electrochemical kinetics are enhanced and
water management and cooling is simplied, but also useful waste
heat can be recovered, and lower quality reformed hydrogen may
be used as fuel [5]. However, the frequent changes of demand, in
terms of electrical power and/or heat, require operation in varying
partial-load conditions. A simple and compact design, with efcient
adaptability to load changes must be accomplished, which is vital
for this type of application.

0360-5442/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2010.12.009
994 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002
The Danish micro-CHP project is managed by a national cons-
ortium consisting of nine Danish energy companies. The consor-
tium combines all the competencies necessary to develop, test, and
demonstrate micro-CHP systems. The project cooperates with
a wide range of political and specialist parties, such as the Danish
Energy Agency. It is also nancially assisted by the Danish Ministry
of Climate and Energy by 40% of the total cost of the project. It is
scheduled to run from 2006 to 2012, and includes fuel cell systems
based on three different technologies: LT-PEMFC (low temperature-
proton exchange membrane fuel cell), HT-PEMFC and SOFC (Solid
Oxide Fuel Cell). It is divided into three phases, and two fuel types
are used: hydrogen and natural gas. The choice of fuel depends on
the fuel cell technology and its availability at the installation sites.
A preliminary assumption concerning the operational control of the
system, indicated that the electrical load must be fullled, but also
the design should secure the right amount of heat will be available
on demand for the space heating and hot water loads. Further on,
an auxiliary burner for peak production of thermal energy is under
consideration to be integrated to the end-user system [3,6].
The HT-PEMFC-based micro-CHP units are developed by Dantherm
Power and operate on natural gas. Experimental tests, with pure
hydrogen fuel, showed start-up times of 30e60 min, with an electrical
efciency of 40e58% (LHV (Lower Heating Value)-based). From the
operating point of the nalized design, an efciency of 50% is expected.
Further experimental tests and calculations showed a potential system
efciency of 85e90% (LHV-based) [6]. A fast adaption to load variations
was also observed. In the rst phase, Danish Micro Combined-Heat-
and-Power developed micro-CHP unit prototypes with PEMFC and
SOFC fuel cells. In the second phase, ten micro-CHP units are scheduled
Fig. 1. Schematic of the proposed micro-CHP system.
to be installed and tested at selected consumer households in the
municipalities of Lolland and Snderborg, Denmark. In the third and
last phase, micro-CHP systems will be installed and demonstrated at
around 100 households in the two aforementioned municipalities.
This will allow the Danish micro-CHP system project to gather and
analyze realistic experiences related to installation, operational
procedures, maintenance needs and also consumer satisfaction. These
will be used for further system improvement [6].
2. System layout
The proposed micro-CHP system, shown in Fig. 1, is modeled in
LabVIEW to provide easiness in user usage of the program, and to
allow future experimental testing capabilities with Data Acquisition
hardware. Fig. 2, shows an indicative front panel of the fuel cell stack
subsystem. In order to synthesize and design the proposed micro-
CHP system, the energy requirements for a representative residen-
tial building must be established. For the current research study, the
representative residential building is a typical Danish single-family
household (130 m2 house with four persons: two adults and two
children). A micro-CHP unit of approximately 1 kWe is considered.
The types of residential loads considered are the following:
(a) Electrical load;
(b) Space heating load;
(c) Hot water load.
Averaged daily power load curves for all three loads were
measured for 25 houses at a 15 min average time segment [4]. For
 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002 995

Fig. 2. LabVIEW front panel of the Fuel Cell Stack subVI.

the purposes of this research study, the entire load prole, shown in W_
electrical net
Table 1, has been simplied into three time segments, i.e. winter, helectrical net (2)
_ CH4 ;in LHVCH4
m
summer, and spring (autumn).
By observation, it is clear that the winter segment appears to be The combined cogeneration system efciency is dened as the
the one with the most stringent for electrical and space heating sum of the net electrical power output of the system and the actual
loads, while hot water load is most stringent during spring season. waste heat recovered divided by the chemical energy input to the
Therefore the system must be designed to fulll the maximum system,
winter electrical load 0.95 kWe, since the proposed micro-CHP


system assumes an electricity-led operation. It should be noted that   _
W electrical net
Q_ HEx cogen:
at short time segments the electrical power demand will exceed hsystem (3)
cogen: _ CH4 ;in LHVCH4
m
1 kWe. In this case, electrical power will be imported from the grid.
On the other hand, the remaining heat load demand can be satised
with external means, e.g. auxiliary burner. It should be noted that 3. Modeling of the micro-CHP system
these are beyond the scope of this study, and only the percentage of
heating load fullled from the proposed system is analyzed. The system is designed initially at nominal load to investigate
The various efciencies should be dened, before the modeling operating behavior and geometric analysis of the most important
details are given in the next section. The cogeneration thermal ef- system components. All necessary components/subsystems, with
ciency is dened as the ratio of the actual waste heat recovered by heat emphasis on the fuel processing subsystem, are modeled in detail
exchangers IV, V, and VI and the chemical energy input to the system, based on semi-empirical assumptions from the literature to allow

a realistic analysis of the system parameters. Then the system is
Q_ HEx
hthermal cogen:
cogen:
(1) simulated at part-load conditions to investigate its behavior at off-
_ CH4 ;in LHVCH4
m design and the effects of an electricity-led operation on the total
heat load fulllment. All the individual models are described in this
The corresponding electrical efciency is dened as the ratio of
section in terms of input and output parameters and specic
the net electrical power output of the system divided by the
assumptions for every particular model under study are also given.
chemical energy input to the system,
The operational principle of the proposed system, shown in
Table 1 Fig. 1, is the following: Natural gas is desulfurized at an acceptable
Mean residential load requirements for a typical Danish household. level; hydrogen sulde content must be removed to values below
Residential load type Time segment
1 ppm [7]. Water is pumped from the line into the steam generator,
where it is superheated with ue gas exhausted by the shell-side of
Winter Summer Spring
the SMR (steam methane reformer) reactor. Superheated steam and
Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max preheated natural gas are mixed in the mixer, and then the steam-
Electrical load (We) 540 950 380 650 460 920 fuel mixture is fed to the tube-side of the SMR reactor. The inputs of
Space heating load (Wth) 1450 1930 70 140 600 1070 the catalytic combustor are air, methane (necessary at start-up),
Hot water load (Wth) 330 1080 230 1420 310 1620
and reformate fuel (depleted fuel from the anode of the fuel cell
996 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002

stack). Its main purpose is to provide heat for the endothermic hohmic iRohmic (8)
steam methane reforming reaction.
The total cell voltage is given by,
In the SMR reactor, the reforming reaction takes place. It should
be noted that the SMR process is based on reaction kinetics, and is
Vcell V0  ha  hc  hohmic (9)
modeled as a PFR (plug ow reactor) with the presence of a catalyst,
with experimental data taken from [8]. In terms of heat exchanging, The power density is given by,
the SMR is modeled as a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, where the
shell part carries the hot ue gas, and the tube part carries the Wcell Vcell i (10)
vaporized methane-water mixture. The produced hydrogen-rich The stack voltage is given by,
synthesis gas is mixed with water and enters the WGS (water gas
shift) reactor, which is modeled similarly to the SMR. It serves as Vstack Vcell ncells (11)
a reduction of the carbon monoxide content, which is converted to
carbon dioxide, into a tolerable level for the fuel cell stack. It also The fuel cell stack electrical power output is given by,
contributes in further hydrogen production.
Pstack Acell ncells Wcell (12)
The reformate fuel enters the anode side of the fuel cell stack,
where a part of it is depleted and used in the combustor for the Finally the current is dened as,
SMR reaction described above. In the cathode of the fuel cell stack,
air enters and used for the fuel cell reaction converting the Pstack
Istack (13)
chemical energy of reformate and air into electricity. A by-product Vstack
of this reaction is the hot mixture, which exits from the fuel cell
stack. This mixture is used in a plate heat exchanger to satisfy
a part of the residential heat load. A part of the residential heat 3.2. SMR reactor
load is also satised by the exhausted ue gas at the natural
gas pre-heater. Flue-gas is then passed through open-loop and The kinetic model of the SMR reactor is described analytically in
closed-loop heat exchangers for water heating and space heating, [9]. The assumed reactor material and its properties are described
respectively. in detail in [8]. The following assumptions were made for the SMR
reactor:

3.1. Fuel cell stack
The fuel cell stack model is based on [3,9]. Initially, the model
calculates the required hydrogen feed based on the number of cells
specied in the model. At part-load the model is modied to have
the feed reformate fuel (hydrogen-rich gas) as an input to the
model, in order to allow the calculation of power output at off-
design conditions. Similarly, the current density is constant at full-
load (0.2 cm2/A) and a calculated variable at part-load conditions.
The following assumptions were made:
 The reaction kinetics is based on a generalized Lang-
muireHinshelwood kinetic model [8].
 The model considers a steady-state non-isothermal PFR, with
the presence of catalytic material in a PBR (packed-bed reactor)
arrangement.
 The SMR reactor is heat integrated, as shown in Fig. 3, with
a shell-and-tube heat exchanger design, where the external
shell-side wall is considered adiabatic.
 The reactor material is assumed inactive during the catalytic
reaction.

 The model considers only the reaction of hydrogen with For the current research study only the following reactions are
oxygen (air). All other substances are considered inactive. considered:
 The reformate fuel after the WGS Reactor/Plate Heat Exchanger
stage passes through a condenser/knock-out stage, where all CH4 H2 O#CO 3H2 DH298 206:2kJ=mol (14)
the water content in the fuel is removed. Nevertheless, some
water-content is considered because the moisture content in CO H2 O#CO2 H2 DH298 41:1kJ=mol (15)
the incoming air is included in the calculations.
 The temperature of the incoming reformate fuel is 160
C, CH4 2H2 O#CO2 4H2 DH298 164:9kJ=mol (16)
which is the fuel cell stack operating temperature.
 The cell active area is 49 cm2. The heat transfer model is based on [10], where the shell-and-
 Heat losses are neglected in the calculations. tube heat integration model is based on a transient model. For the
current research study, the model was simplied in a steady-state
The ohmic and diffusion resistances are given by, one, where the partial differential equations are reduced into
ordinary differential equations. The convective heat transfer coef-
Rohmic 0:0001667Tcell 0:2289 (4) cient of the inside tube wall is based on a semi-empirical relation
for spherical packing [11].
Rdiff 0:4306  0:0008203Tcell (5) The heat transfer coefcient for a packed-bed tubular reactor is
obtained from the following empirical correlation,
The anode and cathode overpotentials are given by,
   
kref 6dp
ha
RTcell
arcsinh
i
(6) hw 2:03Re0:8
p exp  (17)
aanode F 2keh qH2 Di Di
while the shell-side heat transfer coefcient is dened as,
   
RTcell i i i
hc ln 0 Rdiff (7)       
4acathode F i0 lair  1 ks Deq Gs 0:55 Cp;s ms 1=3 ms 0:14
hs 0:36 (18)
The Ohmic losses are given by, Deq ms ks mwall
 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002 997

Fig. 3. Schematic of the SMR reactor, modeled as a shell-and-tube heat exchanger.

The ue gas temperature gradient is obtained by the energy a plate heat exchanger is its compactness. These heat exchangers
balance in the shell-side, fulll the following system needs:

dTs phs Do Tw  Ts  Fuel pre-heater: Flue gas, exhausted from the steam genera-
(19)
dz _ s Cp;s
m tors ue gas side, preheats the natural gas, before being mixed
while the inside tube wall temperature is dened as, with the superheated steam in the mixer.
 Water heater: The exhaust water mixture produced from the
Do hs Ts Di hw Tref fuel cell stack is used to heat tap water at a temperature high
Tw (20)
Do hs Di hw enough for domestic use.
 Space heating heater: The exhaust water mixture produced
3.3. WGS Reactor from the fuel cell stack is used to heat the uid (water mixture)
in a closed circuit for space heating.
The inlet composition for the WGS reactor is the sum of the exit  High temperature reformate fuel cooler: it is located between
composition of the SMR reactor and the injected water. The heat the SMR and the WGS reactors to cool the reformate gas exiting
exchanger placed prior to the WGS reactor inlet, cools the WGS the SMR reactor. The reformate gas must reach a lower
inlet temperature to an appropriate level, as needed by the WGS temperature before entering the WGS reactor. On the cold-side
reactor. The CO (carbon monoxide) content, in terms of molar of the heat exchanger, the air absorbs the heat before entering
composition, should be reduced to an acceptable level of 0.1%e0.2%. the combustor.
The kinetic constant, based on a power law relationship, is at steady  Low temperature reformate fuel cooler: It is located after the
state. The type of the converting catalyst and its deactivation are WGS reactor and cools the reformate gas with ambient air. This
described in detail in [12]. The kinetic model of the WGS reactor is is necessary to ensure the reformate fuel is at a low tempera-
described in detail in [9,12]. The WGS reaction is, ture before entering the condenser, and subsequently the fuel
cell stack. On the cold-side of the heat exchanger the ambient
CO H2 O#CO2 H2 (21)
air is heated, and then send to the high temperature reformate
The equilibrium constant given in [13], fuel cooler for further heating, as explained above.
 
4400 The modeling of the heat exchangers is based on simple heat and
KT exp  4:063 (22)
T energy balances, where the heat transfer rate and the (overall heat
The kinetic power law t parameters are obtained from [12], transfer coefcient-area)-value needed to fulll the heat exchange
  for the given mass ow rates and inlet temperatures are calculated.
Ea
KWGS k0 exp (23)
RT 3.5. Mixers & by-pass valves
The CO extent of reaction is given by,
The mixers and by-pass valves used in the micro-CHP system are
dxCO 3600rCO
urwiremesh (24) necessary for the operation and the regulation of the system. The
dz n_ CO;i modeling of each mixer and by-pass valve is done with simple mass
and energy balances, assuming no pressure losses.
while the temperature gradient is dened as,
dT rwiremesh

(25) 3.6. Steam generator
dz rg cp;mass us  rCO dHr;1
The steam generator model is divided into three sections:
3.4. Plate heat exchangers economizer, evaporator, and superheater (see Fig. 4). In the water/
steam side of the SG (steam generator), water is pumped in the
In the current conguration several heat exchangers of the plate economizer section by the water pump, and undergoes phase
type are used, where all ows are unmixed. The main advantage of changes until it becomes superheated steam. The steam is then
998 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002
Fig. 4. Schematic of the Steam Generator.
mixed with preheated fuel in the mixer, at the same temperature. In
the ue gas side, ue gas exhausted from the SMR reactor is used to
heat the water following the reverse path, as compared to the water
side. The exhausted ue gas is then used to preheat the methane in
the fuel pre-heater.
3.7. Combustor
Although the primary purpose of the combustor is to produce heat
for the steam reforming reaction in the SMR reactor, it can be used to
produce additional heat to supplement the heat production from the
fuel cell stack. In this manner, the residential heat demand can be
fullled. Depleted fuel (hydrogen-rich gas) from the fuel cell is com-
busted with air in the catalytic combustor and the following assump-
tions concerning the operation of the combustor have been made:
 The ue gas temperature is regulated to remain constant at
1100 K. Therefore depending on the amount of the fuel, the
amount of air is regulated accordingly. The effect of NOx-
content has not been investigated in the current model.
 The ue gas ow rate is tested whether it is adequate to fulll
the SMR reaction, otherwise more fuel is needed to be com-
busted. In the latter case, natural gas from the line can be used
through the relevant by-pass valve.
 The air used in the combustor is twice preheated by two plate
heat exchangers, before and after the WGS reactor.
The relevant stoichiometric combustion reactions are given
below:
H2 0:5O2 3:76N2 /H2 O 0:53:76N2 (26)
CH4 2O2 3:76N2 /CO2 2H2 O 7:52N2 (27)
3.8. Water pump
The water pump is used to pump water to the steam generator,
the WGS reactor (water injection), and to the water heater (plate
heat exchanger after the fuel cell stack exit). Since the thermody-
namic states in the inlet are known and the outlet thermodynamic
states can be xed as desired, what is left is a calculation of the
pump power consumed. The corresponding mass and energy
balances are given by:
Table 2
Overall system validation.
Input values
Fuel cell active area, Acell 135 cm2 Number of cells
Results
Electrical power output, W _ net Net electrical efciency
Korsgaard, 2008 666 W Korsgaard, 2008
Proposed system 669 W Proposed system
_ pump
m in
_ pump
m out (28)
 
_ pump m
W _ in hout  hin pump (29)
where m_ in is the non-pressurized mass ow rate entering the
pump, m_ out the pressurized mass ow rate exiting the pump,
_ pump
W the pump work rate consumption, and hpump in
; and hpump
out
are the corresponding enthalpies for the mass ow. The pressure
boost is around 0.2 bar, assuming that every component has
a pressure loss of 0.015 bar. This assumption is done in order to
have a fuel cell stack pressure (reformate fuel in the anode) slightly
above atmospheric, close to 1.05 bar.
4. System validation
The validation of the SMR reactor, the WGS reactor, the HT-
PEMFC stack, and the overall system were compared with reference
models from the literature [3]. Before validation is explained, it
should be noted that mass balances for every component input/
output were performed; the mass balances veried the validity of
the results. All three individual subsystems showed only minor
discrepancies between the reference models and the models under
study.
Although an analytical comparison between the research under
study and a reference system is not possible, due to signicant
differences between the current system and the systems in the
literature, some values can be compared to investigate validity, and
also the sources of discrepancy. The chosen reference system is the
HT-PEMFC-based micro-CHP system developed by [3]. The results
are given in Table 2. The most signicant differences between the
two systems are the following:
 Different heat integration techniques in the SMR reactor. The
reference system considers a simple heat integration model
without any consideration of the geometric inuence of a realistic
system. The current research study considers a shell-and-tube
heat integration model as explained in the preceding sections.
 Different chemical kinetics modeling in the SMR reactor. The
reference system considers a continuous stirred-tank reactor
(CSTR), based on chemical equilibrium, where the research
project under study considers a PFR, based on reaction kinetics,
as explained in the preceding section.
65 Methane input, LHVCH4 1500 W
Total system efciency
0.45 Korsgaard, 2008 0.88
0.4455 Proposed system 0.95
 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002 999

Table 3
Simulation results for full-load and part-load operation.

Node T(
C) _
mkg=s xCH4 xCO xCO2 xO2 xN2 xair xH2 O xH2
Full-load operation
1 10.0 5.530E-05 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
7 602.5 2.587E-04 0.031 0.048 0.088 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.336 0.498
8 250.0 2.587E-04 0.031 0.048 0.088 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.336 0.498
9 296.6 3.259E-04 0.026 0.003 0.112 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.402 0.457
10 160.0 3.259E-04 0.026 0.003 0.112 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.402 0.457
11 160.0 1.523E-04 0.043 0.005 0.187 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.764
12 160.0 4.569E-05 0.043 0.005 0.187 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.764
16 85.3 4.768E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000
17 820.0 4.841E-03 0.000 0.000 0.006 0.195 0.777 0.000 0.022 0.000
18 698.3 4.841E-03 0.000 0.000 0.006 0.195 0.777 0.000 0.022 0.000
19 597.2 4.841E-03 0.000 0.000 0.006 0.195 0.777 0.000 0.022 0.000
20 592.5 4.841E-03 0.000 0.000 0.006 0.195 0.777 0.000 0.022 0.000
21 469.4 4.841E-03 0.000 0.000 0.006 0.195 0.777 0.000 0.022 0.000
22 313.6 4.841E-03 0.000 0.000 0.006 0.195 0.777 0.000 0.022 0.000
23 10.0 4.871E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
25 200.0 2.034E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
27 60.0 6.000E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
30 60.0 4.000E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
33 90.8 1.695E-03 0.007 0.001 0.031 0.000 0.000 0.809 0.152 0.000
75%-load operation
1 10.0 3.440E-05 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
7 677.2 1.609E-04 0.007 0.076 0.077 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.306 0.534
8 250.0 1.609E-04 0.007 0.076 0.077 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.306 0.534
9 323.9 2.047E-04 0.006 0.006 0.122 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.356 0.509
10 160.0 2.047E-04 0.006 0.006 0.122 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.356 0.509
11 160.0 1.044E-04 0.009 0.010 0.190 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.791
12 160.0 3.132E-05 0.009 0.010 0.190 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.791
16 88.3 3.538E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000
17 718.0 3.589E-03 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.197 0.778 0.000 0.020 0.000
18 678.2 3.589E-03 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.197 0.778 0.000 0.020 0.000
19 593.0 3.589E-03 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.197 0.778 0.000 0.020 0.000
20 589.0 3.589E-03 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.197 0.778 0.000 0.020 0.000
21 422.6 3.589E-03 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.197 0.778 0.000 0.020 0.000
22 316.2 3.589E-03 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.197 0.778 0.000 0.020 0.000
23 10.0 1.170E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
25 200.0 1.265E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
27 60.0 4.000E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
30 60.0 2.000E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
32 160.0 1.224E-03 0.001 0.002 0.030 0.000 0.000 0.813 0.153 0.000
33 64.0 1.224E-03 0.001 0.002 0.030 0.000 0.000 0.813 0.153 0.000
50%-load operation
1 10.0 2.730E-05 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
7 588.3 1.277E-04 0.041 0.041 0.088 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.355 0.475
8 250.0 1.277E-04 0.041 0.041 0.088 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.355 0.475
9 290.2 1.602E-04 0.035 0.003 0.106 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.423 0.433
10 160.0 1.602E-04 0.035 0.003 0.106 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.423 0.433
11 160.0 7.176E-05 0.060 0.004 0.184 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.751
12 160.0 2.153E-05 0.060 0.004 0.184 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.751
16 60.6 3.314E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000
17 610.0 3.345E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.199 0.781 0.000 0.015 0.000
18 588.6 3.345E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.199 0.781 0.000 0.015 0.000
19 514.5 3.345E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.199 0.781 0.000 0.015 0.000
20 511.0 3.345E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.199 0.781 0.000 0.015 0.000
21 328.9 3.345E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.199 0.781 0.000 0.015 0.000
22 95.3 3.345E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.199 0.781 0.000 0.015 0.000
23 10.0 4.733E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
25 200.0 1.004E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
27 60.0 2.600E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
30 60.0 1.800E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
32 160.0 7.782E-04 0.010 0.001 0.031 0.000 0.000 0.807 0.152 0.000
33 94.6 7.782E-04 0.010 0.001 0.031 0.000 0.000 0.807 0.152 0.000
25%-load operation
1 10.0 1.350E-05 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
7 577.6 6.314E-05 0.048 0.036 0.088 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.367 0.461
8 250.0 6.314E-05 0.048 0.036 0.088 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.367 0.461
9 285.5 7.904E-05 0.041 0.002 0.103 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.436 0.418
10 160.0 7.904E-05 0.041 0.002 0.103 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.436 0.418
11 160.0 3.447E-05 0.072 0.004 0.183 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.742
12 160.0 1.034E-05 0.072 0.004 0.183 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.742
16 56.7 1.708E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000
17 585.0 1.722E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.200 0.782 0.000 0.014 0.000
18 577.6 1.722E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.200 0.782 0.000 0.014 0.000
(continued on next page)
1000 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002

Table 3 (continued )

Node T(
C) _
mkg=s xCH4 xCO xCO2 xO2 xN2 xair xH2 O xH2
19 506.2 1.722E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.200 0.782 0.000 0.014 0.000
20 502.9 1.722E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.200 0.782 0.000 0.014 0.000
21 148.3 1.722E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.200 0.782 0.000 0.014 0.000
22 93.3 1.722E-03 0.000 0.000 0.004 0.200 0.782 0.000 0.014 0.000
23 10.0 4.666E-03 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
25 200.0 4.964E-05 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
27 60.0 1.300E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
30 60.0 9.000E-04 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000
32 160.0 3.673E-04 0.012 0.001 0.031 0.000 0.000 0.805 0.152 0.000
33 90.9 3.673E-04 0.012 0.001 0.031 0.000 0.000 0.805 0.152 0.000

Table 4
Overall power-to-heat performance for the adopted load prole.

Load _
W electrical net Q_ HEx cogen: Total cogeneration
Heat load fullled (%)
Winter, mean 540 840 47.2
Winter, max 950 1560 51.8
Summer, mean 380 580 193.0
Summer, max 650 1000 64.1
Spring, mean 460 700 76.9
Spring, max 920 1470 54.6

Fig. 5. Current density and HT-PEMFC efciency vs. Load.
 Some other differences in the layout of the system components
can be noted as well; a steam generator and fuel pre-heater are
modeled in the current system under study, where a mixture
vaporizer was modeled in the reference model. Also different
heating/cooling between streams is used (e.g. air coolers, etc.).
Nevertheless of the differences between the two systems, the
validation has shown a good agreement of the two models, veri-
fying the validity of the research project in study.
5. Results and discussion: On-design and off-design system
performance
Off-design operational conditions and simulation at these
conditions provides valuable information on the operation of the
component/system, particularly on its range of applicability.
Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the amount of electricity and
heat produced by the micro-CHP system, in terms of size, part-load
characteristics, etc. The results for all the nodes, shown in Fig. 1, are
given with the following parameters: temperature, mass ow rate,
and mole fractions. In Table 3, the results for full-load, 75%, 50% and
25%-load operation are given. The fuel cell stack operates at
a constant temperature of 160
C to avoid fast degradation of the
membrane, if operated at higher temperatures [14,15]. Also the
temperature is kept constant, because rapid and frequent variations
of the operating temperature would contribute to faster deterio-
ration of the membrane [5,14]. The corresponding fuel cell oper-
ating pressure is kept at a value slightly above atmospheric, since an
increase of pressure would not contribute signicantly in the
system efciency, and also the degradation of the membrane would
be faster [14,15].
The current density variation for the given loads and the HT-
PEMFC stack efciency (LHV) variation for the given loads are given
in Fig. 5. The current density is varied from 0.19 A/cm2 at full-load
linearly up to 0.04 A/cm2 at 25% load. The efciency follows an
analogous path, increasing at part-load to 45.5%.
The net electrical power output at full-load and part-loads vs.
the corresponding cogeneration heat loads is shown in Fig. 6. The
systems useful heat capacity was analyzed in Section 2. For this
load prole the net electrical power output, along with the corre-
sponding total cogeneration heat output are given in Table 4. In the

Fig. 7. Mass ow variation of hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide at full-load

Fig. 6. Electrical Load vs. Total Cogeneration Heat Load. operation.
 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002 1001

Table 5 6. Conclusions
Component geometries for the proposed micro-CHP system.

Geometric variable Value Geometric variable Value A proposed micro-CHP system, with an applied load prole for
description description a Danish household, was presented to indicate the high potential of
ncells Number of cells 176 LSMR SMR tube length 0.8 m HT-PEMFC technology as a candidate system in decentralized
DSMR
i SMR inlet 0.1016 m DWGS
i WGS tube 0.13 m systems. It can provide a basis for further experimental and data
tube diameter diameter
acquisition testing in the developing process of the end-user
DSMR
o SMR outlet 0.1322 m LWGS WGS tube length 0.45 m
tube diameter product. An electrical efciency varying from 45.4% (25%-load) to
38.8% (full-load) was calculated. The corresponding total efciency
was around 95.2%.
same table, the percentage of heat output fullling the aforemen- One of the most important advantages of the proposed system is
tioned load prole at every time segment is also given. As expected, the simplicity of the fuel processing system. An equivalent LT-
the combined heat load is satised better in the summer segment. PEMFC or SOFC fuel processing subsystem is more complex because
It should be noted that there would still be a decit of heat at some it requires extra components, such as dual temperature WGS
instances in the summer if no heat storage was provided. In the case reactors, or PrOx devices in order to be suitable for the relevant fuel
of the other two time segments, winter and spring, an auxiliary cell stack [2]. Simplicity is necessary, because the micro-CHP
burner will be required at some instances, even if a heat storage system must maintain a high level of compactness. The fuel pro-
system is used. More specically for the winter segment, the heat cessing system provides a high rate of methane conversion and
load can be fullled at around 50% in most instances. The system acceptable CO-removal, making it appropriate for integration with
should avoid operation at part-loads below 20% because then an HT-PEMFC stack. Inaccuracies were inevitable, especially in the
higher selected nominal cell voltage does not necessarily mean fuel processing system, due to the lack of matching semi-empirical
higher operating efciency; at very low current densities where functions, which are due in the future, for small scale fuel proces-
parasitic losses (including gas permeation through the polymer sors for fuel cell systems. The modeling used in the SMR and WGS
membrane) may not be negligible [16]. reactors is based on reaction kinetics, which provide more realistic
The mass ow variation of hydrogen, methane, and carbon results and also it can be easy to adjust the modeling when new
monoxide throughout the proposed micro-CHP system is shown in experimental kinetic data become available.
Fig. 7. Mole fractions have not been used (although it could be done The obtained efciencies for the proposed system, veried the
with mole fractions at dry basis), because it would appear as if the H2 great potential of the HT-PEMFC technology in micro-CHP systems.
content has decreased at the exit of the WGS reactor. This is because A lot of ground for improvement is necessary before the end-user
of the water addition at the reactors inlet, which alters the total system is available; the modeling results have to be veried by
mass ow rate (and therefore the mole fractions) exiting the WGS experimental testing to investigate sources of discrepancy and
reactor. By observation the SMR reactor is very efcient, converting other hurdles, such as incompatibility of the subsystems. As a novel
hydrogen to 2.01E-5 kg/s for a methane input of 5.52E-5 kg/s. This technology, HT-PEMFC-based micro-CHP systems have the disad-
suggests that the current conguration is very efcient and appro- vantage of lacking in operational data. This means that it can enter
priate for the application under study, provided this can be proved the CHP market in a gradual process (as explained in the intro-
with experimental calculations in the future. The CO content is duction), with extended testing of the units in real conditions to
reduced from 2.71E-5 kg/s, at the SMR outlet, to 0.21E-5 kg/s. The investigate sources of malfunction and possible operational fail-
HT-PEMFC stack is assumed to withstand CO-contents in the inlet ures. Therefore, although the proposed technology is highly
reforming fuel of up to 10,000 ppm. The CO-content was maintained promising, in terms of efciency, maintenance, and performance in
within this limit at full- and part-load. At full-load it was calculated general, it has yet to be proved that the actual efciencies, oper-
to be 5480 ppm (see Table 3). This result veries that the current ating and maintenance costs will be within the limits set by pro-
design of the fuel processing system, although simple, it can be jected ones to maintain competitiveness with the other micro-CHP
adequate for the needs of the fuel cell stack, in terms of CO-content candidates. Once more data are available from the demonstration
removal. systems of the Danish micro-CHP project, more realistic conclu-
The HT-PEMFC stack, SMR reactor and the WGS reactor geom- sions will be drawn on the full potential of the proposed system.
etries for the proposed micro-CHP system are given in Table 5. The Moreover, one of the main barriers of the proposed technology,
UA-values for the heat exchangers used in the proposed micro-CHP that should be eliminated, is the currently high installation cost of
system are given in Table 6. These component values satisfy the units. The installation cost of micro-CHP units can have a strong
a compact, yet efcient micro-CHP system, as required for this impact on the commercialization prospects of the technology, since
application [4]. new units will be installed on existing or new households. In the
latter case, the replacement of gas-red furnaces should be justied
Table 6 with signicantly higher efciencies, which in turn correspond to
UA-values [W/(m2-
C)] for the heat exchangers used in the proposed micro-CHP reduced operating costs. The competitiveness of the generated
system. electricity cost, as compared with electricity grid market, can be
Geometric variable Value Geometric variable Value kept high with an efcient operational strategy. In this way excess
description description electricity will almost never have to be produced (and sold to the
UAI Natural gas 0.0538784 UAIV 1st Cogeneration 1.41641 grid). On the other hand, electricity can be purchased from the grid
pre-heater heat exchanger to supplement electricity shortages from the micro-CHP system
UAII SMR/WGS cooler 0.720725 UAV 2nd Cogeneration 2.36245 (e.g. during the summer season). This will eliminate the problem of
heat exchanger
producing excess heat, which cannot be stored.
UAIII WGS/HT-PEMFC 0.548661 UAVI 3rd Cogeneration 1.39233
cooler heat exchanger It was shown that the system efciency increased at part-load
UASG,sup Superheater 0.107073 UASG,ec Economizer 0.0896212 conditions. The effect of BOP components at part-load is not so
(steam generator) (steam generator) signicant and therefore, even though they operate at lower ef-
UASG,ev Evaporator 0.843147 ciencies as the systems load is reduced, the combination of
(steam generator)
increased fuel cell efciency and lower supporting component
1002 A. Arsalis et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 993e1002

efciencies can maintain high efciencies as the load is reduced. [10] Kim K. Dynamic proton exchange membrane fuel cell system synthesis/design
and operation/control optimization under uncertainty. Blacksburg, VA: PhD
This gives a signicant leverage to the proposed micro-CHP system
Dissertation, Virginia Tech; 2008.
as compared to conventional micro-CHP systems, such as Stirling [11] Li C, Finlayson BA. Heat transfer in packed bedsea reevaluation. Chemical
engines, micro-turbines, etc. The latter will typically experience Engineering Science 1977;32:1055e66.
a signicant drop-off in efciency at part-load [17]. This gives the [12] Keiski RL, Salmi T, Niemisto P, Ainassaari J, Pohjola VJ. Stationary and transient
kinetics of the high temperature water-gas shift reaction. Applied Catalysis A:
proposed system a fuel cost advantage, since this application General 1996;137(2):349e70.
requires a signicant amount of part-load operation. [13] Davies J, Lihou D. Optimal design of methane steam reformer. Chemical and
The current results do not consider an exergy analysis which can Process Engineering 1971;52:71e80.
[14] Korsgaard AR, Refshauge R, Nielsen MP, Bang M, Kr SK. Experimental
be used to provide a more complete picture in the overall design and characterization and modeling of commercial polybenzimidazole-based MEA
synthesis of the system, since it accounts both for the quantity and performance. Journal of Power Sources 2006;162(1):239e45.
quality of all energy conversions present in a process. In that manner [15] Bchi FN, Inaba M, Schmidt TJ. Polymer electrolyte fuel cell durability. New
York, NY, USA: Springer; 2009.
a more cost-effective and better performing system could be ach- [16] Barbir F. PEM fuel cells: theory and practice. Elsevier; 2005.
ieved, to reduce not just operational (fuel) costs, but also total (incl. [17] Peacock A, Newborough M. Impact of micro-CHP systems on domestic
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2653e76.
verify the validity of the results. Specically, the high thermal ef-
ciency achieved by the high recovery of exhaust gases might be
Nomenclature
unrealistic, if components of reasonable size and efciency (e.g. heat
exchangers) cannot be coupled in the micro-CHP system. When Acell: Fuel cell active area (cm2)
there is a very high temperature difference between the heat Cp,s: Specic heat of shell-side gas in SMR (kJ/(kmol.K))
dp: Catalyst diameter, SMR reactor (m)
exchange streams, these have to be matched in order for the nal
dHr,1: Enthalpy of reaction (kJ/mol)
temperature of one to be close to the initial temperature of the other. Di: Inlet diameter (m)
Also the heat exchange is more efcient if the ow heat capacities of Do: Outlet diameter (m)
Deq: Equivalent diameter (m)
the streams are similar. Otherwise streams with high heat capacities
F: Faraday constant (C/mol)
might need to be split in several stream ows. Therefore alternative Gs: Mass ux (kg/(m2.s))
designs of system/component congurations should be used with hs: Shell-side heat transfer coefcient (W/m2.K)
the aid of heat integration methods, such as pinch analysis. hw: Tube-side heat transfer coefcient (W/m2.K)
i: Current density (A/cm2)
Finally, LabVIEW was chosen as the modeling tool for this Istack: Fuel cell stack current (A)
research study for the reasons explained in the introduction. i0: Exchange current density (A/cm2)
Although the end result can provide a high degree of easiness to the keh: H2 electro-oxidation rate constant (A/cm2)
ki: Thermal conductivity of species i (W/K.m)
program user in terms of calculations, the modeling procedure KT: Equilibrium constant
proved to be very time-consuming. There is a great difculty in KWGS: Kinetic power law t parameter (m^1.92/kmol^-0.36.kg.s)
adjusting and modifying highly complicated models, due to the LHVi: Lower heating value of species i (J/kg)
m _ i : Mass ow rate of species i (kg/s)
graphical modeling nature used in LabVIEW. Also LabVIEW has ncells: Number of cells in the fuel cell stack
a limited number of parameters that can be transferred from n_ CO : CO molar feed rate (kmol/h)
a subVI to the main VI (Virtual Instrument). Therefore, LabVIEW Pstack: Fuel cell stack electrical power output (W)
Q_ i : Heat transfer rate of component i (W)
modeling is more appropriate for single component dynamic
rCO: CO reaction rate (kmol/kg.s)
systems. Nonetheless, the current system can provide a good tool R: Ideal gas constant (J/K.mol)
for experimental testing in the future. Rdiff: Diffusion resistance (Ohm.cm2)
Rohmic: Ohmic resistance (Ohm.cm2)
Rep: Reynolds number
Acknowledgments Tcell: Fuel cell operating temperature (oC)
Ti: Temperature of species i (oC)
Vcell: Total cell voltage (V)
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Danfoss and Vstack: Fuel cell stack voltage (V)
Dantherm Power throughout the realization of this research study. V0: Open circuit voltage (V)
us: Supercial velocity (m/s)
Wcell: Power density (W/m2)
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electrical : Electrical power output (W)
z: Distance along the reactor length (m)
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