Techno-economic and Performance Assessment of a Hybrid Fuel Cell-based Combined Heat and Power System for a Dairy Industry /

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the electrical and thermal load demand, load management and power generation through solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solar PV system. The produced biogas form dairy manure is fed into SOFC for power production after desulfurization and refinement. The generated electrical and thermal power is supplied to the dairy farm and processing units. The onsite energy generation not only solves the fuel transportation issues, but also providing a sustainable energy resource for the dairy processing industry that contributes towards bio-circular economy. The HOMER Pro software had been utilized for the techno-economic, energy and environmental analysis of the proposed systems. Three systems (Fuel cell, Fuel cell-Batteries, Fuel cell-Solar PV-Batteries) were designed and compared for the optimal solution. The energy production from the optimum system (fuel cell-Solar PV-Batteries) was 328 MWh/year with net present cost (NPC) of $1.296 million and the overall levelized cost of energy was 0.289 $/kWh. Environmental analysis revealed that the proposed system reduced the carbon dioxide emissions up to 18.58% as compared with combustion-based power systems, which is a remarkable achievement of the proposed system. The study concludes an efficient and smart self sustainable energy system for a commercial dairy farm and processing activities.