Techno-economic analysis of an integrated green hydrogen production into a combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system for a university campus

As global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensify, integrating renewable energy sources and hydrogen into energy systems has emerged as a promising pathway to achieving decarbonization goals, particularly relevant in educational facilities such as university campuses. This work presents a thermodynamic modeling and economic assessment of a Combined Cooling, Heat and Power (CCHP) system with hydrogen production, utilizing solar energy from photovoltaic panels installed on a university campus in Alabama, U.S. The integrated system aims to enhance energy efficiency and environmental sustainability by leveraging renewable energy for hydrogen production, which is then used in a hybrid fuel mixture (Hythane) to power the CCHP system. A detailed energy, exergy, economic, and environmental analysis was performed and validated to assess the system's performance. Additionally, a parametric study was conducted, varying the hydrogen fraction in the fuel input into the system to evaluate its impact on CO2 emissions and system performance. In a base case study using Hythane with 40 % hydrogen, the net power generation and hydrogen production were found to be 49.27 MW and 514.1 kg/h, respectively. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies fluctuated between 30 % and 35 % throughout the year. The parametric study revealed that increasing the hydrogen fraction in the fuel improved energy production, reduced exergy destruction, and decreased CO2 emissions by up to 15.23 % compared to a conventional CCHP system using natural gas. Moreover, Hythane blends with 10 % and 20 % H2 provided the optimal balance between economic feasibility and environmental benefits, yielded NPVs of $12.52 M and $6.83 M, ROIs of 11.14 and 5.28, respectively.