Integrated Intelligent Energy ›› 2025, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (10): 26-33.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.2097-0706.2025.10.003

• Electrochemical Energy Storage • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Economic calculation and price cost analysis of the trigeneration system based on phosphoric acid fuel cells

CHEN Yuan(), GUO Xiaohan, WANG Tingjian, XU Peiyun, CHEN Peng, WANG Di, DENG Liangsheng   

  1. PowerChina Urban Planning & Design Institute Company LimitedGuangzhou 511458, China
  • Received:2024-06-27 Revised:2024-08-13 Published:2024-10-14
  • Supported by:
    Science and Technology Project of PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation Limited(PI2314)

Abstract:

To address the economic issues of a high-temperature phosphoric acid fuel cell trigeneration system taking natural gas as fuel and taking an energy management contract as operation model, capacity optimization configuration and economic analysis were conducted for a tertiary hospital in southern China based on an instantaneous system simulation program (Trnsys). The results showed that after fully tapping into the demands for cooling, heating, and electricity, the system achieved 6 000 h of power generation per year, with a self-consumption rate of about 5%, a net power generation efficiency of 40.9%, and an overall energy utilization rate of 75%. Currently, the price of imported equipment is around 12 000 yuan/kW, with a total system investment of about 69 million yuan. The project's investment payback period is 18.73 years, and substantial subsidies are required for successful demonstration and implementation. The system typically operates at a high load factor. In the event of a power outage, it can rapidly ramp up the load within the transition time provided by the uninterruptible power supply, serving as a crucial backup power source. This helps the hospital save about 2.5 million yuan in investment for diesel generator rooms. Considering the localization process of other types of fuel cells in China, if the cost of phosphoric acid fuel cell drops to 6 000 yuan/kW, the project's rate of return on investment will exceed 5%. Under the conditions of low-rate loans, such projects will become a cost-effective, clean, and efficient new form of distributed energy supply.

Key words: phosphoric acid fuel cell, cooling-heating-power trigeneration, economic analysis, price cost analysis, large tertiary hospital

CLC Number: