Energy analysis of fuel cell system for commercial greenhouse application – A feasibility study

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of integrating a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system with a commercial greenhouse and assess the mutual benefits of such integration. The main objective is to recover the low quality waste heat of the PEMFC system in order to meet the thermal energy demand of a commercial greenhouse. In addition the PEMFC covers the some part of the greenhouse electrical demand. In this study an energy analysis has been performed in order to evaluate the energetic performance of the system. To achieve these aims, first, a system model has been developed using TRNSYS. Afterwards, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out varying the main influencing operating parameters in order to evaluate an optimal configuration of the system. In particular the influences of temperature and air stoichiometry have been investigated. The results show that a 3 kW fuel cell system is capable to cover approximately the 25% and 10% of the usual electricity and heat demands of a 1000 m2 commercial greenhouse during a year, respectively.