Combined Heat and Power System based on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for hospitals in hot and humid environment.

Abstract

One of the most influential trends in today's world is the massive increase in the consumption of the existing natural resources to generate power. Finding optimized and sustainable solutions to the depletion of current resources and the associated CO2 emissions is one of Qatar's 2030 vision's most essential goals. One of the most viable solutions to these concerns is utilizing combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) distributed systems. One of the CCHP system's benefits is reducing heat losses, as the power is produced on-site. Moreover, the CCHP system can operate on recovered heat from waste heat sources to have domestic hot water, heating, thermal-mechanical refrigeration (TMR)/cooling, and extra power. Consequently, there is a sharp increase in the overall system efficiency by reducing the cost of consumption and a steep decrease in environmental pollution. One of the most promising technologies is the combined heat and power technology with solid oxide fuel cells (CHP-SOFC), which could reach an efficiency of more than sixty percent. Its fuel flexibility makes it viable than fossil fuel technologies since it can operate with hydrogen or natural gas. Energy Consumption in hospitals is more significant than other private and public buildings (Ayoub et al., 2014). Therefore, it is beneficial to determine energy consumption performance to save electricity. This thesis focuses on implementing and analyzing the CHP-SOFC system and other energy-saving alternatives in the Cancer Care Hospital in Qatar. The main objective is to investigate how an energy assessment framework can be performed out for a healthcare facility. Modeling analysis is conducted via eQUEST Simulation software, in which a model of 1,75,190 square-feet and a 200-bed hospital building is developed. The Cancer Care Hospital's energy consumption model is developed by keeping account of all existing construction policies and current market utility rates, such as ASHRAE 90.1-2010 standard, Qatar Construction Specification (QCS) 2014 and Kahramaa policies. A demo model of the SOFC CHP system is also implemented in the premises of the hospital using eQUEST. The obtained results of the above model are evaluated to determine the overall system performance. The facility's energy cost is measured annually while assessing the electricity output and the efficient usage of thermal energy. In addition, to give a better picture of possible cost savings, different improvement alternatives are modeled, and their results are compared with the hospital base-case scenario. The measurement of carbon emissions aims to evaluate the impact of harmful gases on the environment from several alternatives compared to the current energy system in cancer hospital. The findings are shown as environmental safety measures. In light of the arguments presented in this research work, the base case scenario is compared with different approaches like efficient HVAC systems, additional external building insulation, lighting upgrade, installation of Photovoltaic system, and SOFC CHP system. At the same time, the proposed improvement alternatives resulted in overall lower energy bills and improved the facility's environmental effects. This work analysis has creativity in the methodology approach, the actual collection of hospital data and the outcome as no research has been performed in GCC countries before.