2016-2017 Faculty Research Grant
Lauber de Souza Martins (Physics)
Economic viability study of the installation of fuel cell for combined heat and power (CHP) system for stationary applications.
This research has the objective to identify successful cases where fuel cell combined heat and power systems (CHP) are used around the world and to verify the economic viability of the installation of fuel cell systems for cogeneration in stationary applications such as hospitals, schools, police and fire stations in Southwest Michigan.
Japan is an example where CHP are largely used, however due to abundance of other primary source of energy as oil in case of US, fuel cells are yet to be more present in the energy generation scenario even though its efficiency is improved when the generation of heat and electricity are combined.
Investigation will be done to determine the electrical and thermal needs of the unit in study (hospital, schools as mentioned before). In order to supply the unit's needs, different fuel cell systems will be analyzed, and the energy generated by the hypothetical systems will be priced considering the capital investment in each of these systems as well as its operating costs, based only on their fuel demand. The cost per kWh obtained from each of the proposed systems will then be compared with the kWh currently paid by the unit to the distributor (municipality). From that comparison we intent to find out how competitive fuel cell systems are in face of the potentially increase in the cost of energy supplied by the distributor.