A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.For more information, please contact eprints@nottingham.ac.uk 1 FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY FOR DOMESTIC BUILT ENVIRONMENT APPLICATIONS: STATE OF-THE-ART REVIEW ABSTRACTFuel cells produce heat when generating electricity, thus they are of particular interest for combined heat and power (CHP) and combined cooling heat and power (CCHP) applications, also known as tri-generation systems. CHP and tri-generation systems offer high energy conversion efficiency and hence the potential to reduce fuel costs and CO 2 emissions. This paper serves to provide a state-of-the-art review of fuel cell technology operating in the domestic built environment in CHP and tri-generation system applications. The review aims to carry out an assessment of the following topics: (1) the operational advantages fuel cells offer in CHP and tri-generation system configurations, specifically, compared to conventional combustion based technologies such as Stirling engines, (2) how decarbonisation, running cost and energy security in the domestic built environment may be addressed through the use of fuel cell technology, and (3) what has been done to date and what needs to be done in the future. The paper commences with a review of fuel cell technology, then moves on to examine fuel cell CHP systems operating in the domestic built environment, and finally explores fuel cell tri-generation systems in domestic built environment applications. The paper concludes with an assessment of the present development of, and future challenges for, domestic fuel cells operating in CHP and tri-generation systems. As fuel cells are an emergent technology the paper draws on a breadth of literature, data and experience, mostly from the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, America and Australia.Fuel cells are a technology of the future here today, providing a change in the way heat and power are supplied to end users. Fuel cells operating in CHP and tri-generation systems in domestic built environment applications could finally provide the means by which energy generation can transfer from centralised to decentralised locales in a sustainable and effective manner.

9To date, the application of liquid desiccant air conditioning systems in built environment 10 applications, particularly small scale, has been limited. This is primarily due to large 11 system size and complexity, issues of desiccant solution leakage and carry-over and 12 equipment corrosion. As a result, a novel integrated desiccant air conditioning system 13 (IDCS) has been developed. The system combines the regenerator, dehumidifier and 14 evaporative inter-cooler into a single membrane based heat and mass exchanger. The work demonstrates that the novel IDCS concept is viable and has provided progress 26 to the field of liquid desiccant air conditioning technology for building applications. 27Further work is required in order to address the main issue of mass imbalance between 28 the dehumidifier and regenerator. 29 30

Saffa (2015) Emission and economic performance assessment of a solid oxide fuel cell microcombined heat and power system in a domestic building. Applied Thermal Engineering, 90 . pp. 1082-1089. ISSN 1873 Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33102/1/REVISION%20ATE-2014-7542.pdf Copyright and reuse:The Nottingham ePrints service makes this work by researchers of the University of Nottingham available open access under the following conditions. This article is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives licence and may be reused according to the conditions of the licence. For more details see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. This paper aims to assess the emission and economic performance of a commercially available solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) mCHP system, operating at The University of Nottingham's Creative Energy Homes. The performance assessment evaluates, over a one year period, the associated carbon (emission assessment) and operational costs (economic assessment) of the SOFC mCHP case compared to a 'base case' of grid electricity and a highly efficient gas boiler.Results from the annual assessment show that that the SOFC mCHP system can generate annual emission reductions of up to 56% and cost reductions of 177% compared to the base case scenario. However support mechanisms such as; electrical export, feed in tariff and export tariff, are required in order to achieve this, the results are significantly less without. A net present value (NPV) analysis shows that the base case is still more profitable over a 15 year period, even though the SOFC mCHP system generates annual revenue; this is on account of the SOFC's high capital cost. In summary, grid interaction and incubator support is essential for significant annual emission and cost reductions compared to a grid electricity and gas boiler scenario. Currently capital cost is the greatest barrier to the economic viability of the system. KEYWORDS:Solid oxide fuel cell, micro-combined heat and power, domestic, emission, economic NOMENCLATURE Abbreviations CCGT = combined cycle gas turbine CHP = combined heat and power DB = DesignBuilder DEG = Decentralised energy generation DHW = domestic hot water H:P = Heat to power demand ratio mCHP = micro-combined heat and power PEMFC = proton exchange fuel cell SE = Stirling engine SOFC = solid oxide fuel cell SPBP = simple payback period Parameters and variables E d = Electrical demand (kWh) E SOFC = SOFC electrical output (kWh) E im = Imported electricity (kWh) E ex = Exported electricity (kWh) Q d = Thermal demand (kWh) Q SOFC = SOFC thermal output (kWh) α E = Electricity cost (£ / kWh) α NG...

Poultry farming is one of energy intensive industries that consume large amount of energy to provide the suitable indoor environment for chicken health and production like meat and eggs. Currently, there are extensive researches and practices of applying renewable and sustainable energy technologies to poultry farming to achieve energy saving and carbon dioxide emission reduction. Therefore, it is worth to retrospect the state-of-the-art development and summarize the key features in this field. The main technologies include photovoltaic (PV), solar collector, hybrid PV/Thermal, thermal energy storage, ground/water/air sources heat pumps, lighting and radiant heating. It is found that up to 85% energy saving can be achieved by using these advanced technologies in comparison to the traditional poultry houses with a payback time of 3–8 years.

9The paper provides a performance analysis assessment of a novel solid oxide fuel cell 10 (SOFC) liquid desiccant tri-generation system for building applications. The work 11 presented serves to build upon the current literature related to experimental evaluations 12 of SOFC tri-generation systems, particularly in domestic built environment applications. 13The proposed SOFC liquid desiccant tri-generation system will be the first-of-its-kind. No 14 research activity is reported on the integration of SOFC, or any fuel cell, with liquid 15 desiccant air conditioning in a tri-generation system configuration. The novel tri-16 generation system is suited to applications that require simultaneous electrical power, 17 heating and dehumidification/cooling. There are several specific benefits to the integration 18 of SOFC and liquid desiccant air conditioning technology, including; very high operational 19 electrical efficiencies even at low system capacities and the ability to utilise low-grade 20 thermal energy in a (useful) cooling process. Furthermore, the novel tri-generation system 21 has the potential to increase thermal energy utilisation and thus the access to the benefits 22 achievable from on-site electrical generation, primarily; reduced emissions and operating 23 costs. Compared to an equivalent base case system, the novel tri-generation system is currently 34 only economically viable with a government's financial support. SOFC capital cost and 35 stack replacement are the largest inhibitors to economic viability. Environmental 36 performance is closely linked to electrical emission factor, and thus performance is heavily 37 country dependent. (4) The economic and environmental feasibility of the novel tri-38 generation system will improve with predicted SOFC capital cost reductions and the 39 transition to clean hydrogen production. 40 41

Domestic hot water (DHW) has a significant share in building's energy consumption. In order to reduce this consumption, various solutions have been proposed such as controlling the system in an efficient way, using renewable sources and using phase change materials (PCM) in the system to increase heat capacity. However, this study is not only offering heat capacity improvement of the DHW storage unit but also proposing that energy efficiency can be improved by controlling the heat releasing time of the PCM. In this study, supercooled PCM tubes are placed in a water tank and charged with a solar assisted heat pump unit, these supercooled PCM tubes can then be discharged anytime when the hot water is required. In this paper, a transient thermodynamic model is built for the whole system including solar collector, heat pump, water tank with PCM and DHW demand profile. System components are modelled and a 24 hours of demand profile is used in simulation for a UK home for summer and spring weather conditions. The results show that the PCM tubes effectively compensate the morning peak hot water demand and reduce daily energy consumption around 12.1% and 13.5% by shifting heating provision from immersion heater to solar heat pump.

i AbstractIn response to the critical need to decarbonise the built environment, alternative methods for more effective energy utilisation need to be explored including trigeneration systems.Tri-generation is the simultaneous generation of electricity, heating and/or cooling from a single fuel source. Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and liquid desiccant demonstrate many characteristics that make them an attractive option in the development of an efficient and effective tri-generation system. SOFCs have high operational electrical efficiencies and a thermal output in good agreement with the low temperature regeneration requirement of liquid desiccants.The aim of this thesis is to design, develop and test an efficient and effective proof of concept tri-generation system based on SOFC and liquid desiccant air conditioning technology for building applications. An extensive review of the literature shows that no previous work has been reported on such a system. The research has critically examined, both theoretically and experimentally, the novel tri-generation system concept.Simulations show tri-generation system efficiencies of up to 71% are achievable at a 1.5kW e capacity, which are encouraging values for a system of this size. An integration analysis, based on empirical data, provides good agreement with the simulations. At a 1.5kW e output, a tri-generation efficiency of 69% has been demonstrated. The inclusion of liquid desiccant air conditioning provides an efficiency increase of up to 15% compared to SOFC electrical operation only, demonstrating the merit of the novel tri-generation system in applications that require simultaneous electrical power, heating and dehumidification/cooling. An experimental system, using a micro-tubular SOFC shows the novel system can generate 150W of electrical power, 443W of heat or 279W of cooling. Instantaneous tri-generation system efficiency is low at around 25%. This is primarily due to the low capacity and poor performance of the micro-tubular SOFC. Although the performance is low, the experimental results demonstrate regeneration of a potassium formate desiccant solution using the thermal output from the microtubular SOFC in the first of its kind tri-generation system. The thesis has established that a clear operational advantage of the novel SOFC liquid desiccant Abstract f ii tri-generation system is the potential for nonsynchronous operation. The constant SOFC thermal output can be used to re-concentrate the desiccant solution as a form of thermal energy storage. Unlike thermal storage techniques based on sensible energy, a significant advantage of (chemical) thermal energy storage in the form of strong desiccant solution is that there are minimal losses over time.Using this nonsynchronous operating concept, the experimental system can generate an increased peak cooling output of up to 527W and a daily tri-generation efficiency of 38%.An economic assessment demonstrates questionable performance; however this is anticipated to improve with SOFC capital cost reduct...

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