Optimal arrangement of a micro-CHP system in the presence of fuel cell-heat pump based on metaheuristics

The current energy crisis in today's world has pushed human vision to the optimal use of available energy, and experts have always taken steps to realise this important issue. One of these solutions is the use of cogeneration cycles. The main purpose of this study is to present a multi-objective methodology to select the optimal arrangement of a heat pump (HP)-based CHP system. The optimal arrangement is based on select of the best model of three different HP technologies, trans-critical R744 cycle, Peltier device, and vapour compression cycle (VCC) to achieve the best efficiency for the hybrid HP-based and fuel cell-based micro-CHP system. The optimisation process is performed based on a developed model of the Coyote Optimization Algorithm (COA) by considering two dissimilar objectives: maximising the performance of the hydrogen energy consumption and minimising the combined yearly maintenance and capital costs. The final results indicate that the VCC technology gives the best performance with regards to its low-cost and efficient features.