PEM fuel-cell CHP with cathode water management — a PENG-ROBINSON process flowsheet
A PEM fuel-cell stack (real Butler-Volmer + Nernst polarization model, not an efficiency shortcut) runs on H₂ with a compressed cathode air supply — the reaction water genuinely splits between vapor (carried out in the exhaust air) and condensed liquid via a real (T,P) VLE flash, not a fixed assumption. A downstream cooler + knockout drum recovers additional water from the exhaust before venting.
Modeling assumptions & limitations
- 1This models the electrochemistry and water management rigorously, but stack thermal management (active cooling to remove waste heat) isn't modeled as a duty here — reports electrical power only, not a separate thermal-loss term, so there's no literal 'coolant loop' node; the downstream cooler condenses the exhaust, which is the real, honest analog available today.
172 views 0 forks
- Rigorous PENG-ROBINSON thermodynamics, solved by the same engine every simulation runs on.
- 4 unit operations modeled: AIR Compressor, FUEL CELL, Cooler, Knockout.
- Focus areas: PEM fuel cell, Hydrogen, CHP, Water management, Electrochemistry.
- Thermodynamics
- PENG-ROBINSON
- Components
- h2, oxygen, n2, water
- Unit operations
- AIR CompressorFUEL CELLCoolerKnockout
Opens in a new tab, loaded straight into the app — no setup.
Read the step-by-step guideReproduce this exact result from Python — the real client.get_example() → run_and_wait() path, not a mockup.
from flowsim.sdk import FlowSimClient
client = FlowSimClient()
example = client.get_example("pem-fuel-cell-chp")
sim = client.create_simulation(example["title"], example["flowsheet"])
result = client.run_and_wait(sim["id"])
print(result["status"]) # "converged"
streams = client.streams(sim["id"])Related models
Green hydrogen (electrolysis)
A 1 MW PEM electrolyzer splitting water into hydrogen — a new-energy workflow (carbon footprint + cost track the electricity).
Polymerization reactor comparison: CSTR cascade vs. tubular (PFR)
The same monomer feed, split 50/50 into two trains at equal total reactor volume: a 3-stage CSTR cascade (each stage blending its own new polymer with the MWD already carried by the stream from the stage before it) versus a single tubular (PFR) reactor. Both converge to a real, different Mn/Mw/PDI — the PFR reaches higher conversion at the same total volume, but its cumulative polydispersity is measurably broader than the cascade's, because chain length drifts continuously with conversion along the tube while each CSTR stage makes its own local production under one fixed monomer concentration. See the 'Polymerization Reactors' docs page for the full reasoning.
Helium liquefaction (Linde-Hampson cycle)
A Joule-Thomson liquefaction loop: helium is compressed, aftercooled, precooled well below its ~40-51 K JT-inversion temperature, then throttled through a valve into a flash drum that draws off liquid helium while the cold vapor recycles back to the compressor suction — the same JT-cycle physics as the platform's LNG/refrigeration loops, run on a fluid whose inversion curve makes precooling mandatory before the throttle can cool it at all.
Cement kiln calcination + CO2 liquefaction
Preheated limestone (CaCO₃) enters an indirectly-heated rotary kiln that calcines it toward CaO, releasing a CO₂-rich off-gas; the gas passes a knockout drum, then is compressed and cooled to liquefy the CO₂ for transport/storage.
NGL fractionation: single-shell Petlyuk dividing-wall column
A natural-gas-liquids cut (ethane / propane / n-butane) split into three on-spec products by ONE thermally-coupled dividing-wall column instead of two columns in series. This uses the native Petlyuk unit op: a prefractionator whose reflux and boilup are supplied by the main column (the single condenser + single reboiler), solved by an outer Wegstein loop that converges the bidirectional vapor/liquid coupling to self-consistency — the coupling legacy sequential-modular solvers approximate with two connected columns whose recycle fails to converge.
Ethanol–water distillation
An 8-stage column concentrating ethanol overhead toward the azeotrope (the headline demo).