This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier.

The attached
copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research
and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution
and sharing with colleagues.
Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or
licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party
websites are prohibited.
In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the
article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or
institutional repository. Authors requiring further information
regarding Elseviers archiving and manuscript policies are
encouraged to visit:
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright

Author's personal copy

Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Energy and Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild

Thermodynamic analyses of an integrated PEMFCTEARS-geothermal system for

sustainable buildings
T.A.H. Ratlamwala b , M.A. Gadalla a , I. Dincer b,
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7K4, Canada

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 27 September 2011
Accepted 10 October 2011
Keywords:
Energy
Exergy
Efciency
Buildings
Fuel cell
Hydrogen
Sustainabilty
Geothermal energy
Cooling

a b s t r a c t
In this paper we undertake a comprehensive study to meet the building heating/cooling and power
demand through a sustainable operation. We integrated polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)
system and triple effect absorption refrigeration system (TEARS) for space cooling/heating and water
heating applications in buildings. The analysis is carried out to observe the effects of different operating
conditions on the efciency of the fuel cell, output of the fuel cell and TEARS, and the utilization factor
of the system. It is found that the efciency, the utilization factor, and change in temperature of hot
water increases from 36% to 48.8%, 49% to 86%, and 14 K to 23 K, respectively when the temperature of
the cell is increased for different cooling loads and membrane thicknesses. In addition, the increase in
membrane thickness affected the efciency, the utilization factor, and change in temperature of hot water
in a negative way and they were found to be decreasing from 47.3% to 42%, 85% to 49%, and 23 K to 12 K,
respectively for different cooling loads. The water supplied to the house is obtained from a geothermal
water source which makes the system more sustainable.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Energy plays a base role in our fast moving life. We require
energy for almost everything we do in our life. Energy is required
from comfort in house to comfort out on roads. This ever growing demand of energy has become a major concern for not only
developing countries but also for developed countries. Buildings in
residential, commercial and even in industrial sectors play a critical role due to their high energy demand which comes out as a
signicant amount (consuming up to 4045% of the total energy
use overall and may reach up to 6065% particularly in Gulf countries, like UAE). That is why it is very crucial to provide power, heat
and cooling by sustainable energy systems in order to really make
buildings sustainable.
In order to meet the future energy demand it has become very
important to come up with a solution which is reliable, sustainable, efcient, and eco-friendly. By sustainable we mean that it
should be able to cater almost all the energy needs of a place where
it is being utilized if not all. In addition, worldwide the majority
of energy is being consumed for running the refrigeration system
which provides cooling, heating or hot water to the supplied space.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 905 721 8668; fax: +1 905 721 3370.
E-mail addresses: tahir.ratlamvala@aus.edu (T.A.H. Ratlamwala),
mgadalla@aus.edu (M.A. Gadalla), ibrahim.dincer@uoit.ca (I. Dincer).
0378-7788/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.10.017

The refrigeration systems used at present consume high amount

of energy due to the compression process. Therefore, in this paper
we have studied the integrated PEM fuel cell with absorption system to provide cooling and hot water to a medium size house, and
the water used in the system is obtained from a geothermal water
source so a house can be made as sustainable as possible.
In recent times PEM fuel cells have received great attention from
many researchers and government organizations around the world.
It is believed that PEM fuel cell will be able to solve our problem of
high energy demand in an effective, efcient, and eco-friendly manner. In the last 1015 years great attention has been focused on the
effort to scale-down the fuel cell system to provide an alternative to
replace batteries for portable applications [1]. PEM fuel cells have
the capability of catering the overall demand of any country. The
introductions of fuel cell systems into the power generation market will not only supply clean decentralized power to users, but it
will help to reduce emissions and dependence on primary energy
sources, which is of critical importance particularly for the industrialized countries [2]. Fuel cells are an emerging technology with
applications in transportation, stationary and portable power generation, with outputs ranging from mW to MW [2]. Another benet
of using PEM fuel cell is that they are highly efcient as compared
to present power generating sources which depends on fossil fuels.
They potentially may have a high efciency, theoretically 83% but
in practice around 40%, with hydrogen as fuel around 50% [3]. Also,
the byproduct of PEM fuel cell is water and steam which is another

Author's personal copy

74

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

Nomenclature
a
COP
E

Ex
F
h
i
i0
imax

m
n
n
Q
P
r
R
T
tmem

W
xA
xC
xH2
xO2

surface area of PEMFC, m2

coefcient of performance
rate of energy, kW
rate of exergy, kW
Faradays constant (96,485 C mol1 )
specic enthalpy, kJ kg1
current density (A cm2 )
exchange current density (A cm2 )
limiting current density (A cm2 )
mass ow rate, kg s1
number of electrons involved
molar ow rate, mol s1
heat transfer rate, kW
PEM fuel cell pressure
ratio
universal gas constant (8.314 J mol1 K1 )
temperature, K
membrane thickness (cm)
work rate, kW
anode dry gas mole fraction
cathode dry gas mole fraction
hydrogen mole fraction
oxygen mole fraction

Greek letters
anode transfer coefcient
A
C
cathode transfer coefcient
1 , 2
concentration of overvoltage constants
membrane water content
mem

utilization factor
efciency

A
anode stoichiometry
C
cathode stoichiometry
T
change in temperature
Subscripts
A
anode
cathode
C
F
fuel
FC
fuel cell
LHX
low temperature heat exchanger
medium temperature heat exchanger
MHX
mem
membrane
O
ambient or reference condition
required
req
sat
saturation
1, . . ., 28 state numbers

benet over conventional systems which emits green house gasses

and harms our environment. When hydrogen is used as fuel, the
fuel cells have no emissions other than water [3].
On the other hand adsorption and absorption systems are being
looked at as a promising source of replacing conventional vaporcompression refrigeration systems. The major benet of adsorption
and absorption systems is that they omit the use of compressors
which are the major energy eating sources in conventional systems. Also, it is very easy to integrate adsorption and absorption
systems with the renewable/alternative energy sources because of
their lower energy demand. Reasonable amount of work has been
done on adsorption systems such as by Gadalla [4]. In recent times
absorption systems have attracted many researchers due to its
capability of having high COP at low operating cost. The energy need

especially for food refrigeration applications is huge and requires

potential solutions through renewable/alternative sources such as
solar. Absorption refrigeration systems appear to be a key solution to meet the energy requirement [5]. There are many works
being carried out in order to study the performance of single effect
and double effect systems by researchers [68]. There are rarely
any studies being carried out in the eld of triple effect absorption
systems. Triple effect absorption systems are believed to improve
the COP of the absorption systems by 30% over double effect
absorption systems [9]. Some researchers such as [10,11] studied TEARS integrated with renewable/alternative energy sources.
These researchers found that integrated systems studied provide
an attractive efcient and eco-friendly solution to the recent energy
crisis.
Geothermal energy is the thermal energy which is available
for free inside earths surface. Geothermal energy can be used
to generate electricity using binary systems and can be used
to provide direct heating and cooling for buildings and industries. The usage of geothermal energy for producing power or for
direct use depends on the temperature of the ground water. Hightemperature geothermal resources above 150 C are generally used
for power generation. Moderate- (between 90 and 150 C) and lowtemperature (below 90 C) geothermal resources are best suited
for direct uses such as space and process heating, cooling, aquaculture, and sh farming [12]. In this era, when need of energy
is growing day by day, and the major energy provider fossil fuels
are depleting at a high rate, the use of renewable/alternative energies come into play. The uses of renewable/alternative energies
are expected to grow as the concern over environmental problems
caused by fossil fuel systems become more transparent. Geothermal energy appears to be a potential solution where it is available
to some of the current energy and environmental problems, and
a key resource for making society more sustainable [13]. Also,
the advantages which give geothermal energy an upper hand is
that they are safe, simple, exible, easily adaptable, and can be
integrated with any system with ease. Use of high temperature
geothermal source for power production is an economical, environmental friendly and sustainable solution to the fossil fuels as
studied by researchers [1417]. Moreover, geothermal resources
having low or moderate temperatures are not suitable for power
production, as they are not sufcient enough to produce power
with good efciency. However, these low and moderate temperature geothermal resources provide an excellent alternative to fossil
fuels for providing heating and cooling by using them directly in
the absorption systems. However, low or moderate temperature
geothermal resources are more effective when used directly than
when converted to electricity since the direct use of geothermal
heat in such processes as heating and cooling can replace the burning of fossil fuels from which electricity can be generated much
more efciently [18].
There are works being carried out to integrate renewable/alternative energy sources with the refrigeration systems in
order to make them efcient, eco-friendly and sustainable. The
achievement of sustainability in the building sector necessitates
a tremendous effort to reduce energy demand, boost energy efciency and increase the share of renewable energy sources [19].
Most of this work has concentrated on integrating solar energy
with absorption system. Solar or waste heat driven absorption cooling plants can provide summer comfort conditions in buildings at
low primary energy consumption [20]. However, solar energy on
its own cannot be looked at as the sustainable source because of
its low efciency and dependence on the sun. Besides the gridconnected photovoltaic (PV) system, another timely example of
the distributed residential energy supply technology is small-scale
combined heat and power (micro CHP) generation, with a maximum electrical output capacity of roughly between 1 kW and 10 kW

Author's personal copy

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

75

Fig. 1. Schematic of an overall sustainable system.

[21]. This issue of sustainability makes PEM fuel cells more reliable
and advisable. In recent years, hybrid photovoltaic-hydrogen/fuel
cell energy systems have become popular as energy production
systems that are clean, environmental-friendly, modular, and independent from fossil fuels [22]. The benet of integrating PEM fuel
cell with the absorption system is that it produces nearly the same
amount of heat as power and this heat and power can be used to
cater the energy demand of the house; hence, making it sustainable. A PEM fuel cell produces nearly a similar amount of waste
heat as its electrical power output so as to render its energyconversion efciency of roughly 80%. For an automotive fuel cell
engine rated at 100 kW, this means 100 kW heat dissipation rate.
This thermal energy dissipated can be used for powering absorption refrigeration cycle [23]. Moreover, PEM fuel cells have shown
better performance than its competitors when they are running
physically. Operational fuel cell systems have demonstrated superior performance to combustion-based generation technologies at
scales from 5 kW to 2 MW, a range that includes the electrical
requirements of most buildings [24].
In order to contribute towards the solution of problems of efciency, eco-friendly, and sustainability with conventional systems,
we have studied a PEM fuel cell integrated with triple effect absorption refrigeration systems to provide cooling and hot water to a
medium size house in order to make it sustainable, efcient and
eco-friendly.
2. Integrated system details
The system studied in this paper consists of PEM fuel cell system
integrated with TEARS. This system is studied because of its capability of providing an efcient, eco-friendly and sustainable source of
energy for cooling the house and providing hot water. The complete
schematic of the system can be seen in Fig. 1.
The hydrogen is supplied to the PEM fuel cell anode plate
through the cylinder. This hydrogen then breaks into electrons and

protons. The electrons pass through the circuit giving out power
and heat. Protons are allowed to pass through the membrane which
combines with oxygen and the returning electrons on the cathode
side in order to produce steam and water.
The heat and power generated by PEM fuel cell is then utilized
to run TEARS. Nearly all amounts of heat and power produced
are fed into the high temperature generator (HTG) to heat the
strong solution from state 21 to state 22 and state 8. The vapor
of a mixture of ammoniawater, majority ammonia from state
8 is then fed into medium temperature generator (MTG) where
it is used to heat the strong solution from state 18. Weak solution leaves from state 19 and ammoniawater vapor leaves from
state 5 and state 7. Weak solution from state 22 then passes
through the heat exchangers pre-heating the strong solution till
it reaches the absorber. The ammoniawater vapor from MTG goes
into the low temperature generator (LTG) and heats the strong
solution. From LTG, ammoniawater vapors leave from state 4
and state 6. Ammoniawater vapors from state 4 are then passed
through the condenser heat exchanger (CHX) in order to pre-heat
the strong solution coming from absorber. The ammoniawater
vapors from state 3 and state 6 then go into the condenser. In
the condenser relatively cool water is being supplied via geothermal water source. This water then takes the energy out of
the vapors in order to pre-cool them. The hot water obtained
is then supplied to the house. The pre-cooled ammoniawater
vapor leaving the condenser at state 2 then passes through the
expansion valve to drastically drop the pressure and temperature. The cooled mixture of ammoniawater then goes through
the evaporator where it absorbs the heat from the hot air coming
through the duct from the house. The air is cooled and is supplied back to the house. The heated solution of ammoniawater
then goes into the absorber at state 1 where it mixes with weak
solution coming from the generators and releases the heat in
order to leave as a strong solution of ammoniawater at state
11.

Author's personal copy

76

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

Table 1
Constants and variables of the integrated system.

where the reversible voltage is

Parameters

Symbol and values

Cell temperature (K)

Cell pressure (atm)
Membrane thickness (cm)
Current density (A cm2 )
Anode stoichiometry
Cathode stoichiometry
Anode transfer coefcient
Cathode transfer coefcient
Universal gas constant (J/mol K)
Faradays constant (C mol1 )
Higher heating value of H2 (J mol1 )
Dead state pressure (atm)
Dead state temperature (K)
Heat loss ration
Number of electrons involved
Anode dry gas mole fraction
Cathode dry gas mole fraction
Cooling load

TFC (300360)
P (2.73.3)
tmem (0.0160.018)
i (2)
 A (1.5 [18])
 C (3 [18])
A (0.5 [18])
C (1 [18])
R (8.314)
F (96,485)
HHVH2 (286,000)
P0 (1.0)
T0 (298)
rHL (0.2 [18])
n (2.0 [18])
xA (0.0 [18])
xC (3.76 [18])
Q eva (1525 kW)

1
ln(pO2 )
2

(5a)

The activation voltage at anode and cathode is given as

vactanode =

RTFC
ln
A nF

vactcathode =

i

RTFC
ln
C nF

(5b)

i0

i

(5c)

i0

The ohmic voltage is

vohmic = iRohmic

(5d)

where
Rohmic =

tmem
mem

mem = (0.005139mem 0.00326) exp 1268

In order to analyze the integrated sustainable system, mass and

energy balance equations are written for the PEM fuel cell, and the
components of TEARS. Also, equations to calculate efciency of the
fuel cell, and utilization factor of the system are written. Constants
and variables of the integrated system are provided in Table 1.

 1
303

Q FC =

 
T0

(n s)out

To start analyzing the system it is of most important to have the

correct relations for the fuel cell as it is the energy source for the
system. In order to obtain the mole fraction of the hydrogen, and
oxygen below given equations are used.
1 xH2 O,A

rHL + (1 rHL )

T0
TFC

(1b)

1 + (xC /2)(1 + C /(C 1))

After calculating the mole fraction of hydrogen and oxygen, the

saturation pressure of the water based on the temperature of the
cell is obtained by

(6)

where rHL represents ratio of heat loss.

The molar ow rate of hydrogen, oxygen, and water at inlet and
outlet are obtained by
i
2F

(7a)

n H2 ,in = n H2 ,reacted + n H2 ,out

(7b)

n O2 ,in = n O2 ,reacted + n O2 ,out

(7c)

For further details on the PEM fuel cell see refs. [2426].
3.2. TEARS unit

log10 Psat = 2.1794 + 0.02953 T 9.1837 105 T 2

+ 1.4454 107 T 3



1

n H2 ,reacted = 2n O2 ,reacted = n H2 O,pro =

1 xH2 O,C

1
TFC

FC + (n ex)H ,out
(n s)in + W
2

(1a)

1 + (xA /2)(1 + A /(A 1))

The heat output of the cell which is fed into the HTG is calculated
by

+(n ex)H2 O,out (n ex)H2 ,in (n ex)O2 ,in

3.1. PEM fuel cell unit

xO2 =

TFC ln(pH2 ) +

3. Thermodynamic analyses

xH2 =

Vrev = 1.229 8.5 104 (TFC 298.15) + 4.3085 105

(2)

This saturation pressure is then used to nd the mole fraction

of water at anode and cathode side using equations given below:

For high temperature generator:

After getting the heat and power output from the PEM fuel
cell, equations for HTG were written in order to run the TEARS
to achieve the cooling load and to provide hot water. The amount
of energy given to HTG is shown below

xH2 OA =

Psat
PA

(3a)

FC W
P
Q HTG = W

xH2 OC =

Psat
PC

(3b)

The relationship for calculating enthalpy of a mixture using

concentrations is shown by the following equation:
h21 = x21 + (1 x21 )h21,water

The membrane water content is calculated using

mem =

0.043 + 17.81al 39.85a2l

39.85a3l

(4)

where al represents water activity in the membrane and is

expressed as follows:
al = xH2 O

 P 
Psat

The power output per unit specic area of the fuel cell is given
by
FC = i [Vrev vact vohm vconc ]
W

(5)

(8)

(9)

This equation shows the relationship for one state, and the same
relationship is used for other states.
The mass balance equations are writen as follows:
21 x21 = m
22 x22 + m
8 x8
m

(10)

21 = m
22 + m
8
m

(11)

In order to obtain the outlet conditions of the HTG, the following

equation is used:
21 h21 + Q HTG = m
22 h22 + m
8 h8
m

(12)

Author's personal copy

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

21
17a = m
m

(13b)

21 h21
17a h17a + Q HHX = m
m

(14)

23 h23
22 h22 = Q HHX + m
m

(15)

12

For condenser (con):

The mass, and energy balance equations for the condenser are
give below
6+m
3
2=m
m

(16)

w (hw,o hw,i )
Q con = m

(17)

6 h6 + m
2 h2 + Q con = m
3 h3
m

(18)

1 h1
2a h2a + Q eva = m
m

(20)

For absorber (abs):

The following energy balance equation is used to calculate the
heat rejected from the absorber:

10

310

320

(21)

Q eva + Q con
FC +0.2(Q FC +W
FC )
Q FC +W
FC

16

15

12

10

280

290

300

310

320

0
330

PFC [ kPa ]
Fig. 3. Effect of rise in the cell pressure on the heat and power outputs.

(22)

(23)

The utilization factor (or efciency) of the overall integrated

system is dened as
=

7
360

20

0
270

(24)

QFC [ kW ]

FC
W
i(1.25)

350

T FC = 353 K
tmem = 0.018 cm
2
i = 2 A/cm

QFC
WFC

20

The efciency of the cell is calculated using

FC = 0.95

340

25

The work done by the pump is calculated using the equation

given below.
P
W
h11a h11

330

Fig. 2. Effect of variation in the cell temperature on the heat and power outputs.

For pump:

11 =
m

11

15

15

13

13

11

11

4. Results and discussion

In this paper we have studied a PEM fuel cell integrated with
triple effect absorption refrigeration system to provide cooling and
hot water in an efcient, effective, and sustainable way. Parametric studies are carried out to see the effect of different operating
conditions on the efciency of the cell, utilization factor of the overall system, rate of heat, power, and change in water temperature.
The behavior of rate of heat and power output of the cell to the
increase in the temperature of the cell from 300 K to 360 K with
different membrane thicknesses of 0.016, 0.017, and 0.018 cm are
shown in Fig. 2. The rate of heat and power output are found to be
increasing ranging from 8.3 kW to 12.9 kW, and 7.9 kW to 10.9 kW,
respectively. This increase in rate of heat output of the cell is a
result of increase in temperature difference between the fuel cell
and the ambient/outside condition caused by the rise in the fuel
cell operating temperature. Also, the increase in operating temperature results in the unstable molecule of hydrogen which is easier

5
0.016

9
QFC at T FC = 333 K
WFC at T FC = 333 K
QFC at T FC = 343 K
WFC at T FC = 343 K
0.0164

0.0168

QFC at T FC = 353 K
WFC at T FC = 353 K
Cooling load = 25 kW
i = 2 A/cm2
PFC = 3 atm
0.0172

0.0176

WFC [ kW ]

1 h1 + m
28 h28
11 h11 + Q abs = m
m

12

T FC [ K ]

QFC [ kW ]

(19)

13

10

7
300

For evaporator (eva):

Below mentioned equations are for mass and energy balance
of evaporator
2a = m
1
m

11

Cooling load = 25 kW
i = 2 A/cm2
PFC = 3 atm

WFC [ kW ]

(13a)

14
QFC at tmem = 0.016 cm
WFC at tmem = 0.016 cm
QFC at tmem = 0.017 cm
WFC at tmem = 0.017 cm
QFC at tmem = 0.018 cm
WFC at tmem = 0.018 cm

13

QFC [ kW ]

22 = m23
m

14

WFC [ kW ]

and the same relationship is used for other generators as well.

For high temperature heat exchanger (HHX):
The mass and energy balance equations for HHX are given
below:

77

5
0.018

tmem [ cm ]
Fig. 4. Effect of membrane thickness on heat and power outputs.

to break down into electrons and protons, hence increasing the

electron ow and increasing the power output of the cell.
In Fig. 3, the effect of increase in pressure from 270 kPa to
330 kPa on the rate of heat and power output of the cell is being
displayed. It is found that as the pressure is increased the rate of
heat and power output of the cell increases, ranging from 1 kW to
29 kW, and 0.8 kW to 20 kW. This increase is noticed because as the
pressure increases the pressure difference between the anode and
cathode side increases, which results in higher ow of hydrogen
molecules and hence giving out more power and rate of heat.

Author's personal copy

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

FC at tmem = 0.017 cm
at tmem = 0.017 cm

0.55

0.9

0.875

0.5

i = 2 A/cm2
PFC = 3 atm
0.85

0.45

0.825

FC

0.5

0.4

0.35
300

0.9
FC at T FC = 333 K
at T FC = 333 K
FC at T FC = 343 K
at T FC = 343 K

FC at T FC = 353 K
at T FC = 353 K
Cooling load = 25 kW
i = 2 A/cm2
PFC = 3 atm

0.875

0.45

0.85

0.4

0.825

0.8

310

320

330

340

350

0.35
0.016

0.775
360

0.0164

0.0168

0.8
0.018

Fig. 6. Effect of membrane thickness on efciency and utilization factor for cooling
load of 25 kW.

increase in resistance of the cell with the increase in membrane

thickness. The membrane acts as a resistor so as the thickness
increases the protons passing through the membrane acquire more
time to reach the cathode side in order to react with oxygen and
electrons. This delay in reaction time at cathode caused by the
increase in thickness propagates downstream to the anode side and
delays the separation over there. All these delays in chemical reactions result in less rate of heat and power output which decreases
the efciency of the cell.
The effect of rise in the temperature of the cell from 300 K to
360 K on the rate of heat rejected from the condenser and change in
temperature of the hot water for cooling load of 15 kW is displayed
in Fig. 7. The rate of heat rejected from the condenser and change in
the temperature of the hot water is found to be increasing ranging
from 11.52 kW to 14.74 kW, and 11.01 K to 14.09 K, respectively for
different cooling loads and membrane thicknesses. This increase
in the rate of heat rejection is due to the fact that the amount of
cooled ammonia required to attain the cooling load is more than
the amount required by the TEARS, therefore the excess amount of
heat is being rejected through the condenser. As this excess heat is
rejected through the condenser, it is being further utilized to heat
the water, hence enhancing the performance of the overall system.
The rise in the rate of heat rejection through the condenser means
that the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of the
hot water increases because there is more energy being provided
to heat the water.
Fig. 8 shows the effect of increase in membrane thickness
from 0.016 cm to 0.018 cm on the rate of heat rejection from the

15
14.5
14

Qcon [ kW]

Fig. 4 depict the trend of rate of heat and power output of the cell
to the change in membrane thickness from 0.0116 cm to 0.018 cm
for different operating temperatures of 333 K, 343 K and 353 K. The
rate of heat and power output are found to be decreasing ranging from 12.2 kW to 10.1 kW, and 11.4 kW to 9.1 kW, respectively
with increase in membrane thickness for different operating temperatures. This reduction in the rate of heat and power output is
the direct result of increase in resistance. The membrane thickness
can be modeled as electrical resistor. The more the thickness the
higher the resistance the cell has. The increase in thickness affects
the reaction time on both the cathode side and the anode side. The
delay in protons reaching the cathode side in order to complete the
reaction with the oxygen and electrons propagates to the anode
side. Once this delay propagates to anode side it results in delay of
breaking up of the hydrogen bond into the protons and electrons.
This delay in breaking then results in less rate of heat and power
output from the cell as lesser electrons ow through the circuit. As
a result of all these delays the output of the cell gets affected and
the efciency of the cell drops.
In Fig. 5, the effect of increase in temperature of the cell from
300 K to 360 K on the efciency of the cell and utilization factor of
the system is being studied for cooling loads of 25 kW, and membrane thicknesses of 0.016 cm, 0.017 cm, and 0.018 cm. It is found
that the efciency increases from 35.5% to 48.76% and utilization
factor decreases from 86% to 84.21%, respectively. This increase in
efciency is a result of increase in the temperature difference due to
the increase in the surface temperature of the cell. When the temperature of the cell is increased while keeping the ambient/outdoor
temperature constant the temperature difference increases, this
increase in temperature difference results in higher amount of heat
transfer. Also, the increase in temperature of the cell results in
increase in activation energy of the cell because as temperature
increases the hydrogen molecules start vibrating faster and faster,
hence the separation of the hydrogen into proton and electron
becomes easier. However, the decrease in utilization factor shows
that the energy consumption of the TEARS increases in order to
provide the cooling load of 25 kW and the rate of heat rejected
through the condenser decreases. Thus once the cooling load is
xed, decrease in rate of heat rejection through condenser results
in lower utilization factor.
It can be seen in Fig. 6 that as the membrane thickness increases
from 0.016 cm to 0.018 cm the efciency of the cell and utilization
factor of the overall system decreases for different operating temperatures ranging from 333 K to 353 K and cooling load of 25 kW.
This decrease in efciency of the cell and utilization factor of the
system ranges from 46.95% to 40.64%, and 85% to 84%, respectively
with increase in membrane thickness. This decrease is a result of

0.0176

tmem [ cm ]

T FC [ K ]
Fig. 5. Effect of variation in the cell temperature on the efciency and utilization
factor for cooling load of 25 kW.

0.0172

13.5

Qcon at tmem = 0.01

Qcon6 cm
Tw,ocm
T at tmem = 0.016
Qcon
Qcon at tmem = 0.01
Tw,o7 cm
Qcon
T at tmem = 0.017
Tw,ocm
Qcon at tmem = 0.018 cm
T at tmem = 0.018 cm

Cooling load = 15 kW
i = 2 A/cm2
PFC = 3 atm

13.5
13
12.5

13

12

12.5

11.5

12

11

11.5
11
300

14

T [C]

0.55

FC at tmem = 0.018 cm
at tmem = 0.018 cm
Cooling load = 25 kW

FC at tmem = 0.016 cm
at tmem = 0.016 cm

FC

0.6

78

10.5

310

320

330

340

350

10
360

T FC
Fig. 7. Effect of variation in the cell temperature on the heat rejected from the
condenser and change in the temperature of hot water for cooling load of 15 kW.

Author's personal copy

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

79

Table 2
Effects of cooling load, temperature of fuel cell and fuel cell membrane thickness on efciency of fuel cell, utilization factor, heating load, and change in water temperature.
Cooling load
Q eva (kW)

Temperature of
fuel cell, TFC (K)

Fuel cell membrane

thickness, tmean (cm)

Efciency of
fuel cell, FC

Utilization
factor,

Heating load,
Q con (kW)

Change in water
temperature, T ( C)

15

300
320
340
360
300
320
340
360
300
320
340
360
300
320
340
360

0.016
0.016
0.016
0.016
0.018
0.018
0.018
0.018
0.016
0.016
0.016
0.016
0.018
0.018
0.018
0.018

0.3665
0.3979
0.4385
0.4876
0.3554
0.3834
0.4203
0.4652
0.3665
0.3979
0.4385
0.4876
0.3554
0.3834
0.4203
0.4652

0.492
0.4941
0.4996
0.5079
0.4879
0.4889
0.4933
0.5005
0.676
0.6734
0.6745
0.6787
0.6719
0.6682
0.6682
0.6713

11.74
12.56
13.57
14.74
11.52
12.27
13.21
14.3
16.74
17.56
18.57
19.74
16.52
17.27
18.21
19.3

11.23
12.01
12.97
14.09
11.01
11.74
12.63
13.67
16.01
16.79
17.76
18.87
15.79
16.52
17.41
18.45

15

20

20

16

25
20
15

T [ C ]

Qcon [ kW ]

Qcon at T FC = 353 K
T at T FC = 353 K

14

10
Cooling load = 15 kW
2
i = 2 A/cm
5
PFC = 3 atm

12

10
0.016

system for cooling the space and heating the water. Thus, the following concluding remarks are drawn:

30
Qcon at T FC = 333 K
T at T FC = 333 K
Qcon at T FC = 343 K
T at T FC = 343 K

0.0164

0.0168

0.0172

0.0176

0
0.018

tmem [ cm ]
Fig. 8. Effect of membrane thickness on the heat rejected from the condenser and
change in the temperature of hot water for cooling load of 15 kW.

condenser and the change in temperature of hot water. The

decrease in the rate of heat rejected from the condenser and
change in temperature of the hot water is found to be varying
from 14.31 kW to 12.9 kW, and 13.68 K to 12.3 K, respectively for
increase in membrane thickness from 0.016 cm to 0.018 cm. The
operating temperature of the cell is varied from 333 K to 353 K and
cooling load is xed at 15 kW. This behavior is very much expected
because increase in membrane thickness reduces the rate of heat
and power output of the cell as explained before. This reduction
in rate of heat and power output reduces the rate of heat rejected
from the condenser as less input is utilized towards meeting the
cooling demand of the space. The reduction in rate of heat rejection then results towards lesser temperature difference of the hot
water supplied, due to the less rate of heat which is provided to
heat the inlet water from geo-thermal source.
The variation in efciency of the cell, utilization factor of the
system, rate of heat output, and change in temperature of the water
with change in membrane thickness, temperature of the fuel cell
and cooling load are listed in Table 2.
5. Conclusions
The demand of coming up with an energy source which is
efcient, eco-friendly, and sustainable has become ever more
important. Also, the demand of integrating renewable/alternative
energy sources to the refrigeration systems has increased in the
past decade. In this paper we carried out the parametric studies of
a PEM fuel cell integrated with triple effect absorption refrigeration

For the increase in the temperature of the cell the rate of heat
and power output increases from 8.3 kW to 12.9 kW and 7.9 kW
to 10.9 kW, respectively.
When pressure of the cell is increased the rate of heat and power
output of the cell increases from 1 kW to 29 kW and 0.8 kW to
20 kW, respectively.
The rate of heat and power output of the cell decreases with
increase in the membrane thickness. This decrease varies from
12.2 kW to 10.1 kW and 11.4 kW to 9.1 kW, respectively.
When the temperature of the cell is increased, the efciency
increases from 35.5% to 48.7% for cooling load of 25 kW. However, for cooling load of 25 kW the utilization factor decreases
from 86% to 84%.
The efciency of the cell and the utilization factor of the system were found to be decreasing, ranging from 46.95% to 40.6%
and 85% to 84.2%, respectively with the increase in membrane
thickness.
The increase from 11.52 kW to 14.74 kW and 11.01 K to 14.09 K
is noticed for the rate of heat rejected from the condenser and
the change in temperature of the hot water, respectively when
temperature of the cell is increased.
The rise in the membrane thickness results in the decrease in the
rate of heat rejected from the condenser and the change in temperature of the hot water from 14.31 kW to 12.9 kW, and 13.68 K
to 12.3 K, respectively.
The results obtained in this paper are expected to help the
researchers and people in the industry to come up with an integrated refrigeration system which is efcient, eco-friendly and
sustainable at the same time. This research is to provide an environmentally friendly energy option for sustainable communities.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the support provided by the Ontario
Research Excellence Fund and the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada.
References
[1] M.Y. El-Sharkh, N.S. Sisworahardjo, T. Yalcinoz, M.S. Alam, Portable direct
hydrogen fed PEM fuel cell model and experimental verication, International
Journal of Energy Research 34 (2009) 643650.

Author's personal copy

80

T.A.H. Ratlamwala et al. / Energy and Buildings 44 (2012) 7380

[2] M.T. Outeiro, R. Chibante, A.S. Carvalho, A.T. de Almeida, A new parameter
extraction method for accurate modeling of PEM fuel cells, International Journal
of Energy Research 33 (2009) 978988.
[3] F. Barbir, S. Yazici, Status and development of PEM fuel cell technology, International Journal of Energy Research 32 (2008) 369378.
[4] M.A. Gadalla, Simulation of ntermittent thermal compression processes using
adsorption technology, Journal of the Franklin Institute 344 (2007) 725740.
[5] I. Dincer, S. Dost, Energy analysis of an ammoniawater absorption refrigeration system, Energy Sources 18 (1996) 727733.
[6] A. Arora, S.C. Kaushik, Theoretical analysis of LiBr/H2 O absorption refrigeration
systems, International Journal of Energy Research 33 (2009) 13211340.
[7] S.L. Lee, S.A. Sherif, Thermodynamic analysis of a lithium bromide/water
absorption system for cooling and heating applications, International Journal
of Energy Research 25 (2001) 10191031.
[8] M. Venegas, M. Izquierdo, M. Vega, Thermodynamic study of multistage
absorption cycles using low-temperature heat, International Journal of Energy
Research 26 (2002) 775791.
[9] R. Gomri, Thermodynamics evaluation of triple effect absorption chiller, Thermal Issues in Emerging Technologies (2008) 245250.
[10] M.A. Gadalla, T.A.H. Ratlamwala, I. Dincer, Energy and exergy analysis of an integrated fuel cell and absorption cooling system, International Journal of Exergy
7 (2010) 731754.
[11] T.A.H. Ratlamwala, M.A. Gadalla, I. Dincer, Performance assessment of an
integrated PV/T and triple effect cooling system for hydrogen and cooling production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2010) 110.
[12] E. Barbier, Nature and technology of geothermal energy: a review, Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews 1 (1997) 169.
[13] L. Ozgener, A. Hepbasli, I. Dincer, Parametric study of the effect of dead state
on energy and exergy efciencies of geothermal district heating systems, Heat
Transfer Eng 28 (2007) 357364.
[14] A.P. Davis, E.E. Michaelides, Geothermal power production from abandoned oil
wells, Energy 34 (2009) 866872.

[15] A. Purkus, V. Barth, Geothermal power production in future electricity markets

a scenario analysis for Germany, Energy Policy 39 (2011) 349357.
[16] S. Frick, M. Kaltschmitt, G. Schroder, Life cycle assessment of geothermal binary
power plants using enhanced low-temperature reservoirs, Energy 35 (2010)
22812294.
[17] M. Kanoglu, I. Dincer, M.A. Rosen, Geothermal energy use in hydrogen
liquefaction, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 32 (2007) 4250
4257.
[18] V. Dorer, R. Weber, A. Weber, Performance assessment of fuel cell microcogeneration systems for residential buildings, Energy and Buildings 37 (2005)
11321146.
[19] U. Eicker, D. Pietruschka, Design and performance of solar powered absorption cooling systems in ofce buildings, Energy and Buildings 41 (2009)
8191.
[20] H. Ren, W. Gao, Economic and environmental evaluation of micro CHP systems
with different operating modes for residential buildings in Japan, Energy and
Buildings (2010).
[21] E. Cetin, A. Yilanci, Y. Oner, M. Colak, I. Kasikci, H.K. Ozturk, Electrical analysis
of a hybrid photovoltaic-hydrogen/fuel cell energy system in Denizli, Turkey,
Energy and Buildings 41 (2009) 975981.
[22] I. Pilatowskya, R.J. Romero, C.A. Isaza, S.A. Gamboa, W. Rivera, P.J. Sebastian,
J. Moreira, Simulation of an air conditioning absorption refrigeration system
in a co-generation process combining a proton exchange membrane fuel cell,
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 32 (2007) 31743182.
[23] V. Alex Ferguson, Ismet Ugursal, Fuel cell modelling for building cogeneration
applications, Journal of Power Sources 137 (2004) 3042.
[24] M. Ay, A. Midilli, I. Dincer, Exergetic performance analysis of a PEM fuel cell,
International Journal of Energy Research 30 (2005) 307321.
[25] M. Ay, A. Midilli, I. Dincer, Thermodynamic modeling of a proton exchange
membrane fuel cell, International Journal of Exergy 3 (2006).
[26] S.O. Mert, I. Dincer, Z. Ozcelik, Exergoeconomic analysis of a vehicular PEM fuel
cell system, Journal of Power Sources 165 (January) (2007) 244252.