jaue2016040: Simulation of Methanol Reforming PEMFC Based on TRNSYS

Abstract

Fuel cell are known as the new generation of power generation technology following the water, fire, nuclear power, solar, natural gas because of its high energy conversion efficiency, environmental friendly and other advantages. Among them, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is currently most mature in commerce and considered to be the main development direction of the automotive power, portable power, spare power supply for important building and other fields. PEMFC reactor needs to maintain a temperature of about 80 to 60 degrees Celsius at runtime, so it is necessary to cool the fuel cell, and using the residualheat while cooling can greatly enhance the efficiency of the overall system.
In this paper, a 5kW methanol reforming PEMFC will be simulated based on a simulation software called TRNSYS to analyze the situation of the residual heat, to simulate the process of residual heat refrigeration, then, to verify the feasibility of this residual heat reform and utilization plan and to calculate the improvement of overall efficiency benefit of fuel cell by it. This can provide theoretical basis for the practical utilization of residual heat of fuel cell. Through the analysis, it is found that the residual heat refrigeration reform can effectively improve the overall system efficiency of methanol reforming PEMFC.