Comparison of three arrangements of internal combustion engine-driven energy systems boosted with PEM fuel cell towards net-zero energy systems

The current works aim is performance improvement of different integrated energy systems towards net-zero energy which is driven by a set of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) through adding some components like fuel cell and thermoelectric generator (TEG) in new arrangements introduced and analyzed. The novelty of the present work is the proposal of the new arrangement of energy conversion systems. In this study the basic cycle (cycle 1) is including an ICE, Kalina cycle, Humidification and Dehumidification (HDH) unit, in cycle 2, the HDH is eliminated while a fuel cell is added to the system and in the cycle 3, in addition to fuel cell and having HDH unit in the system, a thermoelectric generator (TEG) has been used instead of condenser to recover more wasted thermal energy. The performance of all proposed systems is analyzed from energy, exergy, and exergo-economic aspects. It is demonstrated that from an energetic viewpoint, cycle 3 has the better performance with an energy efficiency, and net output power of 37% and 391.7 kW, respectively. That is while from an exergetic viewpoint cycle 2 with exergy destruction of 257.1 kW has superior exergetic performance. The results of current work can provide a precise basis for designing an efficient energy system with a higher thermal performance.