A hybrid solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine fed by the motive steam of a multi-effects desalination-thermo vapor compressor system

Abstract

It is known that the production of electrical power and water is a challenging issue. In this article, the feasibility study of a new configuration of a solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine coupled with a multi-effect desalination thermo vapor compressor is performed. In this method, the generated steam by a heat recovery steam generator is utilized directly to a solid oxide fuel cell. This condition causes a water pump protrudes from the solid oxide fuel cell cycle, and the internal pressure of the heat recovery steam generator is kept equal to the solid oxide fuel cell pressure. In the proposed model, the effects of some design parameters such as the inlet temperature of the solid oxide fuel cell, cycle pressure, fuel utilization factor, steam to methane ratio on electrical power and water generation of the system have been theoretically investigated. The mathematical model of the system is created in Engineering Equation Solver software. The two main parts of the system have been validated with the available literature. The results showed that while increasing the pressure ratio of air and fuel compressors leads to decreasing the mass flow rate of the distilled water, the gain output ratio of the desalination system increases. Moreover, in the proposed model, capital cost of the system and the corresponding cost per unit of time are decreased by 224,844 USD and 6.37%, respectively.