MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND MULTI-CRITERIA OPTIMIZATION OF THE OPERATION OF A HYDROGEN EMERGENCY HEATING SYSTEM

The study develops a mathematical model of an autonomous hydrogen-powered emergency heating system combining direct-contact steam generationwith a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The model integrates energy-balance equations for hydrogen combustion, water injection, superheated-steamproduction, and heat transfer to the heating-system fluid. A set of 250 operating alternatives was generated using Latin hypercube sampling within prescribed ranges of steam temperature, inlet and outlet water temperatures, hydrogen flow rate, and heat-transfer area. The alternatives were evaluated by three criteria maximizing outlet-water temperature, minimizing hydrogen consumption, and maximizing the amount of medium heated per unit time. Pareto optimization with three weighting scenarios was used to identify nondominated operating modes and examine the trade-offs among thermal performance, fuel consumption, and system capacity. The results show that equal criterion weights favor high outlet-water temperatures at low hydrogen consumption but limited heating capacity; prioritizing hydrogen minimization yields the lowest fuel demand; and assigning equal priority to hydrogen minimization and heating capacity substantially increases productivity at the cost of higher hydrogen consumption and lower outlet-water temperature. The proposed approach supports the selection of emergency heating modes according to available hydrogen reserves, required heat-carrier temperature, and the scale of the heating system. Combining Latin hypercube sampling for generating a set of alternatives with multi-criteria optimizationmakes it possible to identify rational operating modes for systems of different scales – from private houses to urban districts. Depending on the specifiedtemperature requirements, these modes can provide either full-scale heating or maintain the minimum permissible temperature with the lowest possible fuel consumption.