Chapter 8: PEFC/Green Energy Compound System (2) – Overall Efficiency of a PEFC with a Bioethanol Solar Reforming System for Individual Houses

The development of a bioethanol reforming system for fuel cells (FBSR: fuel cell with bioethanol steam reforming) using sunlight as a heat source was investigated. If ethanol purity is high, the production method of the bioethanol used for the proposal system will not be limited. The overall efficiency of the production of electricity and heat power of this system was determined by examining its thermal output characteristic. The FBSR was introduced into standard individual houses in Sapporo, Japan for analysis. However, the amount of solar radiation fluctuation of the representative day in August (summer season) in this analysis is large compared with the representative day in March (winter season). It depends for the overall efficiency of the system on the amount of solar radiation fluctuation rather than the amount of solar radiation.