The use of waste heat recovery (WHR) options to produce electricity, heating, cooling, and freshwater for residential buildings

In recent years, there is a growing attention drawn to the area of building-integrated CCHP systems, due to its high capability in cost and energy saving. In this study, a residential scale multigenerational system is proposed to generate power by using solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine (hybrid SOFC/GT), heating (by using HRSG), cooling (by using a double-effect absorption chiller) and freshwater (by using a Revers osmose plant). The system is modeled in engineering equation solver and studied from energy, exergy, economic and environmental standpoints. A parametric study is conducted in order to define the crucial decision variables in the system, and their effect on the overall exergy efficiency and unit product cost, along with the rate of freshwater production is observed. Results of the parametric study demonstrated that fuel utilization factor, stack temperature difference, current density, and the pressure ratio of air compressor have the most substantial influence on the behavior of the proposed system. Moreover, obtained results revealed that the energy and exergy efficiency of the system reaches 86.32% and 69.06%, respectively. In addition, the rate of freshwater production and unit product cost of the entire system becomes 256 L/day and 37.78 $/GJ.hr. Furthermore, the emission of the proposed system becomes 0.225 ton/MW.hr, which faces a 31% reduction compared to the standalone power generation system.