Waste heat utilization of low-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell refrigerated vehicle with integrated absorption-compression refrigeration system

Abstract

To enhance the performance of low-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (LT-PEMFC) and meet cooling demands, this study proposes an absorption-compression cycle using R1336mzz(Z)/TEGDME as the working pair, coupled with LT-PEMFC. The thermal properties of this working pair, including saturation vapor pressure and specific heat capacity, were measured and regressed, while the mixing enthalpy and specific enthalpy were calculated using the NRTL model. Based on the obtained thermal properties, MATLAB simulations were performed to evaluate the performance of the coupled system under varying operating conditions representative of both winter and summer environments. The results indicate that this coupled system can effectively utilize the low-temperature waste heat generated by LT-PEMFC to provide cooling at −20 °C. When LT-PEMFC produces 60 kW of usable electric power, the cooling capacity can reach 32.5 kW in winter and 60.1 kW in summer. Under typical winter and summer operating conditions, the coefficient of performance of the coupled system is approximately 0.73, representing a 9 % improvement over the compression cycle and a 65.5 % increase compared to the standalone LT-PEMFC, which is significant for enhancing vehicle performance.