The present study focuses on the thermodynamic performance of a novel integrated Organic Rankine cycle-Vapor Compression cycle- Proton Exchange Membrane (ORC–VCC–PEM) system for simultaneous power production, cooling, and hydrogen generation. The rationale behind this study is to address the need for efficient utilization of low-grade heat sources and the scarcity of research work related to the integration of ORC, VCC, and PEM technologies using a unified framework of energy and exergy analysis. To achieve this, a fully integrated system is proposed with the internal heat exchanger designed as a cascade heat exchanger to couple the ORC and VCC. Furthermore, a detailed screening of 188 different working fluid pairs is carried out to determine the most thermodynamically compatible pair of fluids, for which Dimethylether-Toluene is found to be the most suitable. Parametric analyses are conducted to determine the impact of critical operating parameters. The study reveals that increasing the evaporator temperature significantly improves the performance of the system, resulting in a 17.1% enhancement in the overall net Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the system and a corresponding 11.2% decrease in total exergy destruction. Conversely, increasing the condensing temperature reduces the performance of the system substantially, resulting in a notable decrease in overall net COP and a large decrease of 32% in hydrogen production. Additionally, increasing the temperature difference in the internal heat exchanger leads to increased thermal irreversibility, resulting in increased exergy destruction and decreased system efficiency. Further analysis of the system reveals that the expansion valve and the compressor contribute most to exergy destruction in the system. The main contribution of the present work is the development of a proposed ORC–VCC–PEM system using a unified framework of thermodynamic performance analysis and a detailed assessment of working fluids.
Cenker Aktemur (Mon,) studied this question.