Performance analysis of an internal combustion engine with thermochemical recovery and high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell combined power generation system

In this paper, a co-generation system based on internal combustion engine (ICE) and high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HTPEMFC) is proposed. Exhaust heat from the engine is recovered to provide the reforming reaction heat, and reformed fuel energy comprehensive utilization is accomplished through turbine and HTPEMFC based power generation. To evaluate how the system improves the power generation performance of ICE power systems, we establish system thermodynamic and economic models, and propose detailed performance evaluation indexes to discuss the system performance. As a result, the power generation efficiency of the system is improved by 17.75 % compared with the engine alone, where 39.03 kW of energy is captured from the reforming gas physical energy through the turbine. The waste heat recovery and utilization efficiency of ICE is as high as 22.05 %, which gives excellent performance in waste heat recovery. Evidently, the system has certain advantages in developing a green and efficient ship power system. Moreover, HTPEMFC and Engine have a larger share in system exergy destruction. Finally, the optimal parameters of the system are determined by double-objective optimization, the system power generation efficiency is 48.53 %, with a total cost per hour of 61.90$/h.