Effects of SOFC Exhaust Gas Recirculation on Performance of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-Gas Turbine Hybrid System Utilizing Renewable Fuels

Abstract

A solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine (SOFC-GT) hybrid system run on renewable fuels, such as biogas and ethanol, is an interesting power generation technology due to its high efficiency. To avoid a carbon formation on the anode catalyst by the direct feed of hydrocarbon fuels to SOFC, a pre-reformer is needed to integrate with the SOFC system for hydrogen production. As the steam reformer and air preheater are units that require high external energy input, the efficient heat management of the SOFC system is necessary. Regarding the SOFC system, the anode and cathode recirculations are employed to recover high-quality waste heat for reformate gas and gas turbine cycle, affecting the electrical and thermal system efficiency. In this study, a steam reformer and SOFC-GT hybrid system with anode and cathode recirculations is investigated. The aim of this work is to analyze the effects of the anode and cathode recirculations on the performance of SOFC-GT systems. The mathematical model of SOFC, gas turbine, and auxiliary units based on mass and energy balances under steady-state operation is employed for this study. The parametric analysis of key operating parameters, such as fuel utilization, steam to carbon ratio and operating pressure, on the system performance is performed. The results indicate that the SOFC hybrid system with the anode recirculation can reduce the supplied heat for the external steam reformer; on the other hand, it degrades the gas turbine performance due to a decrease in the turbine inlet temperature. When considering the hybrid system with the cathode recirculation, it is found that the efficiency of the SOFC-GT system is higher. However, the turbine inlet temperature is extremely high, leading to the cooling problem of a micro turbine.