Participation in IEA Annex 42 FC-COGEN-SIM: The Simulation of Building-integrated Fuel Cells and Other Cogeneration Systems

The project finding allowed Dr Nick Kelly of ESRU to attend four working meetings of an IEA Research Annex (ECBCS Annex 42) and also allowed his participation in the final dissemination conference of the Annex’s work.

The project finding allowed Dr Nick Kelly of ESRU to attend four working meetings of an IEA Research Annex (ECBCS Annex 42) and also allowed his participation in the final dissemination conference of the Annex’s work.

EPSRC travel grant EP/D043948/1 allowed Dr Nick Kelly of ESRU to attend four working meetings of the Annex and also allowed his participation in the final dissemination conference of the Annex’s work. The funding proved crucial to the eventual success of the Annex in that it was during the period of the grant that the main software outputs from the Annex’s work were refined, validated and integrated into simulation tools used by thousands of engineers and modelling practitioners worldwide. ESRU was directly responsible for contributing to and managing this activity and would have been unable to do so without funding.

Associated deliverables were as follows.

- A validated generic model around which the Stirling engine SE and internal combustion engine ICE device models were developed.
- The models were implemented within three well-known building simulation software tools: ESP-r (UK), TRNSYS (US), EnergyPlus (US), which are used by thousands of engineers and researchers worldwide.
- Two simulation studies were undertaken using the models. These dealt with the optimisation of thermal storage for micro-CHP in UK housing (Beyer and Kelly, 2008) and assessing the impact of micro-CHP and other microgeneration technologies on the UK electricity network (Kelly et al, 2008).
- A total of 10 publications have emerged directly from ESRU’s participation in Annex 42. These cover topics ranging from the development of the software models through to their use in practice. Of the publications listed, 7 feature international co-authors and 2 feature collaborators from Supergen HDPS.