Conference Year
2021
Keywords
non-vapor compression, CLHP, fuel cell, mechanistic model, energy savings
Abstract
HVAC, refrigeration, and water heating accounted for approximately 22 quads of primary energy consumed in the United States in 2018, according to US EIA. Most of HVAC&R industry still relies on vapor compression and heat-driven technologies. The development of highly efficient technologies that would significantly improve both COP and annual energy savings is an open challenge for the new decade. Among the novel technologies, the Chemical Looping Heat Pump (CLHP) combined with a reverse fuel cell has been modeled with estimates of a COP increase of over 20% relative to a conventional vapor compression (VC) cycle. However, limitations of simplified modeling efforts necessitate the development of a comprehensive mechanistic model to predict several physical phenomena for varying operating conditions and more accurately estimate performance. In this work, a charge-sensitive mechanistic modeling approach is utilized to predict the performance of the CLHP system. A thermodynamic model is coupled with a discretized fuel cell model to estimate the energy savings potential. A moving boundary model is adopted to assess the steady-state heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger. Sensitivity analyses are used to identify the system behaviors and performance.