Development of an integrated gasifier-solid oxide fuel cell test system: A detailed system study

A detailed system study on an integrated gasifier-SOFC test system which is being constructed for combined heat and power (CHP) application is presented. The performance of the system is evaluated using thermodynamic calculations. The system includes a fixed bed gasifier and a 5 kW SOFC CHP system. Two kinds of gas cleaning systems, a combined high and low temperature gas cleaning system and a high temperature gas cleaning system, are considered to connect the gasifier and the SOFC system. A complete model of the gasifier-SOFC system with these two gas cleaning systems is built and evaluated in terms of energy and exergy efficiencies. A sensitivity study is carried out to check system responses to different working parameters. The results of this work show that the electrical efficiencies of the gasifier-SOFC CHP systems with different gas cleaning systems are almost the same whereas the gasifier-SOFC CHP systems with the high temperature gas cleaning system offers higher heat efficiency for both energy and exergy.