Zheng Liang
Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; State Key Lab of Power Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University;
Kai Wang
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Gan Huang
Clean Energy Processes (CEP) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
Christos N. Markides
Clean Energy Processes (CEP) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
Qun Chen
Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; State Key Lab of Power Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing
100084, China
Spectral-beam splitting (SBS) hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors are able to generate, from the same aperture area, both electricity and thermal energy, at a temperature high enough to make this useful in a wide range of applications. This is a promising technology, especially in area-constrained environments, as it can achieve very high overall (electrical plus thermal) efficiencies. Combining SBS PV-T collectors with reversible solid oxide electronic cell/solid oxide fuel cell (SOEC/SOFC) systems can help address the intermittent nature of the solar resource, since the collected solar energy by the SBS PV-T collectors can be converted to and stored as hydrogen by the SOEC module. If and when needed, the hydrogen can later be converted back to electricity by the SOFC module. In this paper, we present numerical models that has been developed for the SBS PV-T collector and SOEC/SOFC system. Parametric analyses based on these models have been performed in order to identity
operational characteristics and optimal designs, looking to integrated systems that maximize overall energy efficiency. It is found that the water vapor temperature and flow rate through the SOEC/SOFC module are crucial for the performance of this component, but that this leads to a reduced SBS PV-T collector thermal efficiency. Based on the results, we propose a novel hybrid solar-hydrogen system concept that involves combining SBS PV-T collectors, a Rankine cycle engine and a reversible SOEC/SOFC module.