Thermodynamics Analysis and Optimization of a Novel Integrated System with PEM Fuel Cell, PV/Thermal Cells, and Membrane Distillation Unit for Power and Freshwater Production

In this paper, a novel integrated system for power generation and freshwater production is proposed. The system consists of Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), photovoltaic (PV) thermal cells and Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer (PEME) in addition to a membrane distillation (MD) system for freshwater production. The proposed system is assessed from thermodynamics viewpoints through first and second law analyses and the modeling and simulation of the subsystems are conducted in EES software to provide a comprehensive assessment concerning thermodynamic criteria. Simulation of each subsystem is validated by considering the reported data in the previous works. The proposed system is subsequently optimized via a multi-objective optimization method based on genetic algorithm. The results showed that PV cell temperature and PV area are the main influential parameters that can affect the power output and exergy efficiency. The optimization results show that at a well-balanced operating point, power and exergy efficiency would be 30 kW and 11.7%, respectively.