Abstract
The constant growth in demand for energy and the awareness of environmental problems requires the development of technologies which lead to significant increases in both energy efficiency and environmental protection. Great expectations have been placed on both simple and hybrid fuel cell plants, thus making necessary the evolution of analysis strategies to evaluate thermodynamic performances, design improvements and acceleration of new developments. This paper investigates the thermodynamic potential of combining a Steam Injected Gas Turbine (STIG) with a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) for medium and large-scale electrical power production. The MCFC electrochemical core consists of 32 stacks for a total nominal power of 16 MW. The indirect heat transfer to the bottoming cycle allows the GT pressure ratio to be fixed independently from the fuel cell, yielding optimization of the power plant performances in a GT pressure ratios range from 2 to 22. Since the fuel cell exhaust does not have a very high temperature level, the effect of introducing a combustion chamber before the gas turbine is analyzed. The performances of simple and fired bottoming cycles are evaluated and compared as a function of the different parameters in order to identify optimal solutions.
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