Thermo-economic analysis of a tri-generation system based on a PEM fuel cell and an adsorption heat pump

An innovative trigeneration system, based on a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) and an adsorption heat pump (AHP) is presented in this paper. A dynamic model was realised, in order to simulate the system for different typologies of users. Furthermore, an economic analysis aimed to compare the costs of this innovate solution with those of the traditional systems was performed by the same simulation tool. The results obtained show that, for users whose thermal to electric load ratio is in the range 1-2, the trigeneration system here proposed is already economically convenient with respect to the traditional systems based on fossil fuels.