燃料重整固体氧化物燃料电池发电系统性能分析及多变量参数优化

以燃料重整的固体氧化物燃料电池发电系统为研究对象,通过数值模拟方法对固体氧化物燃料电池发电系统的性能、(火用)损、(火用)效率以及多变量运行参数优化进行了分析。研究结果表明：重整反应中燃料利用系数、电池工作温度、水碳比、电堆电流密度等参数对系统性能影响显著;电堆工作在不同电流密度下都有其对应的最佳工作温度、最佳燃料利用系数工况点;水碳比会改变重整反应产氢量,从而影响电化学反应速率,空气加热器的(火用)损所占份额最大;优化后的系统效率及(火用)效率为0.480 9和0.462 6,效率提升约4%。     

A performance analysis of integrated solid oxide fuel cell and heat recovery steam generator for IGFC system

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising technology for electricity generation. Sulfur-free syngas from a gas-cleaning unit serves as fuel for SOFC in integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) power plants. It converts the chemical energy of fuel gas directly into electric energy, thus high efficiencies can be achieved. The outputs from SOFC can be utilized by heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), which drives the steam turbine for electricity production. The SOFC stack model was developed using the process flow sheet simulator Aspen Plus, which is of the equilibrium type. Various ranges of syngas properties gathered from different literature were used for the simulation. The results indicate a trade-off efficiency and power with respect to a variety of SOFC inputs. The HRSG located after SOFC was included in the current simulation study with various operating parameters. This paper describes IGFC power plants, particularly the optimization of HRSG to improve the efficiency of the heat recovery from the SOFC exhaust gas and to maximize the power production in the steam cycle in the IGFC system. HRSG output from different pressure levels varies depending on the SOFC output. The steam turbine efficiency was calculated for measuring the total power plant output. The aim of this paper is to provide a simulation model for the optimal selection of the operative parameters of HRSG and SOFC for the IGFC system by comparing it with other models. The simulation model should be flexible enough for use in future development and capable of predicting system performance under various operating conditions.     

A performance analysis of integrated solid oxide fuel cell and heat recovery steam generator for IGFC system

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising technology for electricity generation. Sulfur-free syngas from a gas-cleaning unit serves as fuel for SOFC in integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) power plants. It converts the chemical energy of fuel gas directly into electric energy, thus high efficiencies can be achieved. The outputs from SOFC can be utilized by heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), which drives the steam turbine for electricity production. The SOFC stack model was developed using the process flow sheet simulator Aspen Plus, which is of the equilibrium type. Various ranges of syngas properties gathered from different literature were used for the simulation. The results indicate a trade-off efficiency and power with respect to a variety of SOFC inputs. The HRSG located after SOFC was included in the current simulation study with various operating parameters. This paper describes IGFC power plants, particularly the optimization of HRSG to improve the efficiency of the heat recovery from the SOFC exhaust gas and to maximize the power production in the steam cycle in the IGFC system. HRSG output from different pressure levels varies depending on the SOFC output. The steam turbine efficiency was calculated for measuring the total power plant output. The aim of this paper is to provide a simulation model for the optimal selection of the operative parameters of HRSG and SOFC for the IGFC system by comparing it with other models. The simulation model should be flexible enough for use in future development and capable of predicting system performance under various operating conditions.     

Exergy based performance analysis of a solid oxide fuel cell and steam injected gas turbine hybrid power system

This paper presents exergy analysis of a hybrid solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine (SOFC/GT) system in comparison with retrofitted system with steam injection. It is proposed to use hot gas turbine exhaust gases heat in a heat recovery steam generator to produce steam and inject it into gas turbine. Based on a steady-state model of the processes, exergy flow rates are calculated for all components and a detailed exergy analysis is performed. The components with the highest proportion of irreversibility in the hybrid systems are identified and compared. It is shown that steam injection decreases the wasted exergy from the system exhaust and boosts the exergetic efficiency by 12.11%. Also, 17.87% and 12.31% increase in exergy output and the thermal efficiency, respectively, is demonstrated. A parametric study is also performed for different values of compression pressure ratio, current density and pinch point temperature difference.     

Energy and exergy analyses of a combined ammonia-fed solid oxide fuel cell system for vehicular applications

In this study, both energetic and exergetic performances of a combined heat and power (CHP) system for vehicular applications are evaluated. This system proposes ammonia-fed solid oxide fuel cells based on proton conducting electrolyte (SOFC-H⁺) with a heat recovery option. Fuel consumption of combined fuel cell and energy storage system is investigated for several cases. The performance of the portable SOFC system is studied in a wide range of the cell’s average current densities and fuel utilization ratios. Considering a heat recovery option, the system exergy efficiency is calculated to be 60-90% as a function of current density, whereas energy efficiency varies between 60 and 40%, respectively. The largest exergy destructions take place in the SOFC stack, micro-turbine, and first heat exchanger. The entropy generation rate in the CHP system shows a 25% decrease for every 100 °C increase in average operating temperature.     

Exergy analysis of a cogeneration plant using coal gasification and solid oxide fuel cell

This paper presents exergy analysis of a conceptualized combined cogeneration plant that employs pressurized oxygen blown coal gasifier and high‐temperature, high‐pressure solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) in the topping cycle and a bottoming steam cogeneration cycle. Useful heat is supplied by the pass‐out steam from the steam turbine and also by the steam raised separately in an evaporator placed in the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). Exergy analysis shows that major part of plant exergy destruction takes place in gasifier and SOFC while considerable losses are also attributed to gas cooler, combustion chamber and HRSG. Exergy losses are found to decrease with increasing pressure ratio across the gas turbine for all of these components except the gas cooler. The fuel cell operating temperature influences the performance of the equipment placed downstream of SOFC. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation analysis of a system combining solid oxide and polymer electrolyte fuel cells

We evaluated the performance of system combining a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack and a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) stack by a numerical simulation. We assume that tubular-type SOFCs are used in the SOFC stack. The electrical efficiency of the SOFC–PEFC system increases with increasing oxygen utilization rate in the SOFC stack. This is because the amount of exhaust heat of the SOFC stack used to raise the temperature of air supplied to it decreases as its oxygen utilization rate increases and because that used effectively as the reaction heat of the steam reforming reaction of methane in the stack reformer increases. The electrical efficiency of the SOFC–PEFC system at 190 kW ac is 59% (LHV), which is equal to that of the SOFC-gas turbine combined system at 1014 kW ac.     

Exergy analysis on non-catalyzed partial oxidation reforming using homogeneous charge compression ignition engine in a solid oxide fuel cell system

Based on the recent improvements in high-temperature fuel cells, distributed power generation fuel cell system of small scale (～hundreds kilowatts) has been widely investigated. To improve the system efficiency, most developments focused on the fuel cell stack, but little was paid attention to the intrinsic exergy destructions at the other parts of a typical configuration. The main objective of this study is to investigate a feasibility of reducing the exergy destruction in the reforming process of fuel cell system, by using a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine as a replacement of existing reforming subsystems, i.e. steam methane reforming (SMR), partial oxidation (POX), or autothermal reforming (ATR), in a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system. To do this, parametric studies with exergy analysis were conducted by using in-house 1-D SOFC and 0-D HCCI simulation models. In results, due to the work production from HCCI reforming engine in addition to the work of the fuel stack, it is demonstrated that HCCI-SOFC system has higher system efficiency than partial oxidation (POX) and autothermal reforming (ATR) systems, which use similar partial oxidation reaction for reformer operation. Furthermore, because of no requirement for catalyst, the HCCI system demonstrates wider operating range than that of POX and ATR systems. When compared to the steam methane reforming (SMR)-SOFC system, the HCCI-SOFC system has the lower total work but slightly higher exergetic system efficiency, mainly caused by large amount of heat exergy needed to operate endothermic reforming process in the SMR process. Based on our simulation data, the exergetic efficiency of the HCCI-SOFC system shows 6.0%, 2.1% and 0.4% higher than POX, ATR and SMR systems at the highest efficiency points of each strategy, while 5.5%, 5.8% and 3.8% higher than POX, ATR and SMR systems at 99% methane conversion points in each reformer, respectively.     

Thermodynamic analysis of an LNG fuelled combined cycle power plant with waste heat recovery and utilization system

This paper has proposed an improved liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled combined cycle power plant with a waste heat recovery and utilization system. The proposed combined cycle, which provides power outputs and thermal energy, consists of the gas/steam combined cycle, the subsystem utilizing the latent heat of spent steam from the steam turbine to vaporize LNG, the subsystem that recovers both the sensible heat and the latent heat of water vapour in the exhaust gas from the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) by installing a condensing heat exchanger, and the HRSG waste heat utilization subsystem. The conventional combined cycle and the proposed combined cycle are modelled, considering mass, energy and exergy balances for every component and both energy and exergy analyses are conducted. Parametric analyses are performed for the proposed combined cycle to evaluate the effects of several factors, such as the gas turbine inlet temperature (TIT), the condenser pressure, the pinch point temperature difference of the condensing heat exchanger and the fuel gas heating temperature on the performance of the proposed combined cycle through simulation calculations. The results show that the net electrical efficiency and the exergy efficiency of the proposed combined cycle can be increased by 1.6 and 2.84% than those of the conventional combined cycle, respectively. The heat recovery per kg of flue gas is equal to 86.27 kJ s^?1. One MW of electric power for operating sea water pumps can be saved. The net electrical efficiency and the heat recovery ratio increase as the condenser pressure decreases. The higher heat recovery from the HRSG exit flue gas is achieved at higher gas TIT and at lower pinch point temperature of the condensing heat exchanger. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy and exergy analyses of a hybrid molten carbonate fuel cell system

This study deals with the energy and exergy analysis of a molten carbonate fuel cell hybrid system to determine the efficiencies, irreversibilities and performance of the system. The analysis includes the operation of each component of the system by mass, energy and exergy balance equations. A parametric study is performed to examine the effect of varying operating pressure, temperature and current density on the performance of the system. Furthermore, thermodynamic irreversibilities in each component of the system are determined. An overall energy efficiency of 57.4%, exergy efficiency of 56.2%, bottoming cycle energy efficiency of 24.7% and stack energy efficiency of 43.4% are achieved. The results demonstrate that increasing the stack pressure decreases the overpotential losses and, therefore, increases the stack efficiency. However, this increase is limited by the remaining operating conditions and the material selection of the stack. The fuel cell and the other components in which chemical reactions occur, show the highest exergy destruction in this system. The compressor and turbine on the other hand, have the lowest entropy generation and, thus, the lowest exergy destruction.     

Energy and exergy analyses of an integrated SOFC and coal gasification system

This paper examines an integrated gasification and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system with a gas turbine and steam cycle that uses heat recovery of the gas turbine exhaust. Energy and exergy analyses are performed with two different types of coal. For the two different cases, the energy efficiency of the overall system is 38.1% and 36.7%, while the exergy efficiency is 27% and 23.2%, respectively. The effects of changing the reference temperature on the exergy destruction and exergy efficiency of different components are also reported. A parametric study on the effects of changing the pressure ratio on the component performance is presented.     

Thermodynamic and electrochemical analyses of a solid oxide electrolyzer for hydrogen production

In this paper, a modeling of the Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC), through energetic, exergetic and electrochemical modeling approaches, is conducted, and its performance, particularly through exergy efficiency, is analyzed under various operating conditions and state properties for optimum hydrogen production. In a comprehensively performed parametric study, at a single electrolysis cell scale, the effects of varying some operating conditions, such as temperature, pressure, steam molar fraction and the current density on the cell potential and hence the performance are investigated. In addition, at the electrolyzer system scale, the overall electrolyzer performance is investigated through energy and exergy efficiencies, in addition to the system's power density consumption, hydrogen production rate, heat exchange rates and exergy destruction parameters. The present results show that the overall solid oxide electrolyzer energy efficiency is 53%, while the exergy efficiency is 60%. The exergy destruction at a reduced operating temperature increases significantly. This may be overcome by the integration of this system with a source of steam production.     

Effects of fuel processing methods on industrial scale biogas-fuelled solid oxide fuel cell system for operating in wastewater treatment plants

The performance of three solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems, fuelled by biogas produced through anaerobic digestion (AD) process, for heat and electricity generation in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is studied. Each system has a different fuel processing method to prevent carbon deposition over the anode catalyst under biogas fuelling. Anode gas recirculation (AGR), steam reforming (SR), and partial oxidation (POX) are the methods employed in systems I-III, respectively. A planar SOFC stack used in these systems is based on the anode-supported cells with Ni-YSZ anode, YSZ electrolyte and YSZ-LSM cathode, operated at 800 °C. A computer code has been developed for the simulation of the planar SOFC in cell, stack and system levels and applied for the performance prediction of the SOFC systems. The key operational parameters affecting the performance of the SOFC systems are identified. The effect of these parameters on the electrical and CHP efficiencies, the generated electricity and heat, the total exergy destruction, and the number of cells in SOFC stack of the systems are studied. The results show that among the SOFC systems investigated in this study, the AGR and SR fuel processor-based systems with electrical efficiency of 45.1% and 43%, respectively, are suitable to be applied in WWTPs. If the entire biogas produced in a WWTP is used in the AGR or SR fuel processor-based SOFC system, the electricity and heat required to operate the WWTP can be completely self-supplied and the extra electricity generated can be sold to the electrical grid.     

Thermodynamic,exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses and optimization of a solid oxide fuel cell-based trigeneration system

This study proposes a trigeneration system based on solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) for generating power, cooling and heating simultaneously. The system mainly contains a SOFC, a gas turbine (GT), an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), a steam ejector refrigerator (SER) and a heat exchanger. The thermodynamic, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental models of proposed trigeneration system are developed, and the effects of design parameters on system performances are analyzed. The results indicate that the system average product cost and environmental impact per unit of exergy increase with SOFC inlet temperature and working pressure, the pinch point temperature difference and evaporating pressure of Generator, while decrease with the current density of fuel cell. Finally, optimization is performed to achieve the optimal exergy-based performance. It is revealed that though the system exergy efficiency is decreased by 7.64% after optimization, the system average product cost and environmental impact per unit of exergy are significantly reduced.     

Fuel cell energy generation and recovery cycle analysis for residential application

Today’s concern regarding limited fossil fuel resources and their contribution to environmental pollution have changed the general trend to utilization of high efficiency power generation facilities like fuel cells. According to annual reducing capital cost of these utilities, their entrance to commercial level is completely expected. Hot exhaust gases of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) are potentially applicable in heat recovery systems. In the present research, a SOFC with the capacity of 215 kW has been combined with a recovery cycle for the sake of simultaneous of electric power, cooling load and domestic hot water demand of a hotel with 4600 m² area. This case study has been evaluated by energy and exergy analysis regarding exergy loss and second law efficiency in each component. The effect of fuel and air flow rate and also current density as controlling parameters of fuel cell performance have been studied and visual software for energy-exergy analysis and parametric study has been developed. At the end, an economic study of simultaneous energy generation and recovery cycle in comparison with common residential power and energy systems has been done. General results show that based on fuel lower heating value, the maximum efficiency of 83 percent for simultaneous energy generation and heat recovery cycle can be achieved. This efficiency is related to typical climate condition of July in the afternoon, while all the electrical energy, cooling load and 40 percent of hot water demand could be provided by this cycle. About 49 percent of input exergy can be efficiently recovered for energy requirements of building. Generator in absorption chiller and SOFC are the most destructive components of exergy in this system.     

Exergoeconomic analysis of a hybrid system based on steam biomass gasification products for hydrogen production

In this paper, a conceptual hybrid biomass gasification system is developed to produce hydrogen and is exergoeconomically analyzed. The system is based on steam biomass gasification with the lumped solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrolyser cell (SOEC) subsystem as the core components. The gasifier gasifies sawdust in a steam medium and operates at a temperature range of 1023-1423 K and near atmospheric pressure. The analysis is conducted for a specific steam biomass ratio of 0.8 kmol-steam/kmol-biomass. The gasification process is assumed to be self-thermally standing. The pressurized SOFC and SOEC are of planar types and operate at 1000 K and 1.2 bar. The system can produce multi-outputs, such as hydrogen (with a production capacity range of 21.8-25.2 kgh⁻¹), power and heat. The internal hydrogen consumption in the lumped SOFC-SOEC subsystem increases from 8.1 to 8.6 kg/h. The SOFC performs an efficiency of 50.3% and utilizes the hydrogen produced from the steam that decomposes in the SOEC. The exergoeconomic analysis is performed to investigate and describe the exergetic and economic interactions between the system components through calculations of the unit exergy cost of the process streams. It obtains a set of cost balance equations belonging to an exergy flow with material streams to and from the components which constitute the system. Solving the developed cost balance equations provides the cost values of the exergy streams. For the gasification temperature range and the electricity cost of 0.1046 $/kWh considered, the unit exergy cost of hydrogen ranges from 0.258 to 0.211 $/kWh.     

Exergy analysis of an integrated solid oxide fuel cell and organic Rankine cycle for cooling, heating and power production

The study examines a novel system that combined a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for cooling, heating and power production (trigeneration) through exergy analysis. The system consists of an SOFC, an ORC, a heat exchanger and a single-effect absorption chiller. The system is modeled to produce a net electricity of around 500 kW. The study reveals that there is 3-25% gain on exergy efficiency when trigeneration is used compared with the power cycle only. Also, the study shows that as the current density of the SOFC increases, the exergy efficiencies of power cycle, cooling cogeneration, heating cogeneration and trigeneration decreases. In addition, it was shown that the effect of changing the turbine inlet pressure and ORC pump inlet temperature are insignificant on the exergy efficiencies of the power cycle, cooling cogeneration, heating cogeneration and trigeneration. Also, the study reveals that the significant sources of exergy destruction are the ORC evaporator, air heat exchanger at the SOFC inlet and heating process heat exchanger.     

An internal reformer for a pressurised SOFC system

A novel reformer design has been demonstrated that converts the methane required for a multi kilowatt SOFC stack. Results show the influence of temperature and the benefits of operating at elevated pressure on the reforming-catalyst fundamental reaction kinetics. Due to the high heat demand of the steam reforming reaction, efficient heat transfer between the SOFC stack and the reforming catalyst is essential. Parameters such as the volume/surface area ratio, choice of catalyst, and catalyst metal loading are key to the design, and these have been determined through a combination of computer modelling and experimental measurements. The thermal properties of the unit have been evaluated over a range of temperatures and fuel compositions that simulate system operating-conditions in the final product.     

Computer simulation of a biomass gasification-solid oxide fuel cell power system using Aspen Plus

The operation and performance of a SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) stack on biomass syn-gas from a biomass gasification CHP (combined heat and power) plant is investigated. The objective of this work is to develop a model of a biomass-SOFC system capable of predicting performance under diverse operating conditions. The tubular SOFC technology is selected. The SOFC stack model, equilibrium type based on Gibbs free energy minimisation, is developed using Aspen Plus. The model performs heat and mass balances and considers ohmic, activation and concentration losses for the voltage calculation. The model is validated against data available in the literature for operation on natural gas. Operating parameters are varied; parameters such as fuel utilisation factor (U_f), current density (j) and STCR (steam to carbon ratio) have significant influence. The results indicate that there must be a trade-off between voltage, efficiency and power with respect to j and the stack should be operated at low STCR and high U_f. Operation on biomass syn-gas is compared to natural gas operation and as expected performance degrades. The realistic design operating conditions with regard to performance are identified. High efficiencies are predicted making these systems very attractive.     

Effect of gasification agent on the performance of solid oxide fuel cell and biomass gasification systems

In this paper, an integrated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and biomass gasification system is modeled to study the effect of gasification agent (air, enriched oxygen and steam) on its performance. In the present modeling, a heat transfer model for SOFC and thermodynamic models for the rest of the components are used. In addition, exergy balances are written for the system components. The results show that using steam as the gasification agent yields the highest electrical efficiency (41.8%), power-to-heat ratio (4.649), and exergetic efficiency (39.1%), but the lowest fuel utilization efficiency (50.8%). In addition, the exergy destruction is found to be the highest at the gasifier for the air and enriched oxygen gasification cases and the heat exchanger that supplies heat to the air entering the SOFC for the steam gasification case.