Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Nilay Shah OBE FREng

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Process Systems Engineering
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6621n.shah

 
 
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Assistant

 

Miss Jessica Baldock +44 (0)20 7594 5699

 
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Location

 

ACEX 522ACE ExtensionSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Acha:2020:10.1016/j.energy.2020.118046,
author = {Acha, Izquierdo S and Le, Brun N and Damaskou, M and Fubara, TC and Mulgundmath, V and Markides, C and Shah, N},
doi = {10.1016/j.energy.2020.118046},
journal = {Energy},
pages = {1--13},
title = {Fuel cells as combined heat and power systems in commercial buildings: A case study in the food-retail sector},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118046},
volume = {206},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This work investigates the viability of fuel cells (FC) as combined heat and power (CHP) prime movers in commercial buildings with a specific focus on supermarkets. Up-to-date technical data from a FC manufacturing company was obtained and applied to evaluate their viability in an existing food-retail building. A detailed optimisation model for enhancing distributed energy system management described in previous work is expanded upon to optimise the techno-economic performance of FC-CHP systems. The optimisations employ comprehensive techno-economic datasets that reflect current market trends. Outputs highlight the key factors influencing the economics of FC-CHP projects. Furthermore, a comparative analysis against a competing internal combustion engine (ICE) CHP system is performed to understand the relative techno-economic characterisitcs of each system. Results indicate that FCs are becoming financially competitive although ICEs are still a more attractive option. For supermarkets, the payback period for installing a FC system is 4.7–5.9 years vs. 4.0–5.6 years for ICEs when policies are considered. If incentives are removed, FC-CHP systems have paybacks in the range 6–10 years vs. 5–8.5 years for ICE-based systems. A sensitivity analysis under different market and policy scenarios is performed, offering insights into the performance gap fuel cells face before becoming more competitive.
AU  - Acha,Izquierdo S
AU  - Le,Brun N
AU  - Damaskou,M
AU  - Fubara,TC
AU  - Mulgundmath,V
AU  - Markides,C
AU  - Shah,N
DO  - 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118046
EP  - 13
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 0360-5442
SP  - 1
TI  - Fuel cells as combined heat and power systems in commercial buildings: A case study in the food-retail sector
T2  - Energy
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118046
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220311531?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/80893
VL  - 206
ER  -
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