A novel high coefficient of performance electrochemical cooling system developed based on the combined chlorine/bromine-hydrogen fuel cell and electrolyzer

This paper suggests combining a fuel cell and an electrolyzer to create an electrochemical cooling system. Previously, a cooling system based on hydrogen and oxygen are analyzed, and a low coefficient of performance (COP) is attained. Therefore, in the present investigation, in order to improve the COP of the cooling system, we replace sluggish oxygen reaction with chlorine and bromine, which have faster kinetics. For this purpose, a numerical simulation of the fuel cell and electrolyzer is presented, and then the whole system is analytically modeled. Furthermore, the effects of different critical operating parameters, including electrolyzer current density, the operating temperature of electrolyzer and fuel cell, operating pressure, and exchange current density, are assessed on the cooling system's performance. Results show that increasing the operating temperature of the electrolyzer increases the COP of the cooling system, while the fuel cell temperature has a reverse effect on the COP. Also, increasing the exchanged current density of chlorine and bromine increases the COP; however, beyond a certain, COP does not improve further. The H2/Cl2 and H2/Br2 cooling systems reach COP of about 1.43-2.05 and 1.37-2.94, respectively, which are about 3.3 and 4.1 times the COP of the previously studied H2/ O2 cooling system. The recommended cooling system is also competitive with cooling technologies, including vapor compression refrigeration, triple effect absorption, ejector refrigeration cycle, and Malone cycle.