Abstract
The low-carbon economy of the future needs low consumption of fossil and high quality renewable based fuels. This requires high efficiencies, good part-load performance and fuel flexibility. A very promising concept to achieve that is the combination of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) with a gas turbine (GT) in a pressurized hybrid power plant. However, experimental data for such SOFC/GT systems are rare. Thus, the DLR built a test rig to analyse such a system with 30 kW electrical output. A 30 kW SOFC module is used under pressurized conditions with components that emulate the GT. Commercially available stacks and state of the art peripheral components are installed. These include e.g. a hot anode off-gas recirculation blower, a steam reformer and recuperator. The system was put into operation and is used to experimentally analyse its operational behaviour. This publication will give insights about the current status of the experimental work. It will outline the basic SOFC/GT process, the implementation within the installed SOFC system and the degrees of freedom in comparison to a coupled system. Experimental results are shown and the impact of main parameters is analysed.
Highlights
The targeted low-carbon economy of the future requires a low consumption of fossil and high value renewable based fuels to keep down increasing operational costs
Such a system was recently demonstrated by Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) with an electrical power output of 250kW that runs on natural gas [2]
First experimental results show that about 45% of the chemical energy (LHV) of hydrogen is transformed to electricity at an overall fuel utilization of 70% and a power output of 15 to 20 kWel
Summary
The targeted low-carbon economy of the future requires a low consumption of fossil and high value renewable based fuels to keep down increasing operational costs. A very promising concept to achieve that is the combination of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) with a gas turbine (GT) in a pressurized hybrid power plant [1]. Such a system was recently demonstrated by Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) with an electrical power output of 250kW that runs on natural gas [2]. Experimental data for such SOFC/GT systems are rare and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is planning to build demonstrator with 30kW electrical output and an estimated efficiency of about 66%-LHV [8]. Detailed heat loss simulations show an efficiency of 60 to 64%-LHV [9]
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