Integration of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with an Absorption Chiller for Dynamic Generation of Combined Cooling and Power for a Residential Application

In this study the waste heat from a 2.5 kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is captured and processed through a 1.5 kW absorption chiller (AC) to provide cooling for a single residence. The integration of an AC with an SOFC could create a highly dispatchable system that can meet the dynamics of measured residential power. A spatially resolved dynamic model was developed in Matlab/Simulink to simulate the dynamic operating characteristics of an SOFC system. A dynamic AC model was developed to study the dynamic characteristics and the performance of the combined co-generation system. Actual dynamic data from a single residential house was used as an input of the SOFC-AC model. For a single week, the SOFC was capable of following the highly dynamic load with an average efficiency of 56%. The AC generated 15.6 kWh of cooling with an average COP and cooling of 1.09 and 0.65 kW, respectively.