Exergetic and exergoeconomic evaluation of a solid-oxide fuel-cell-based combined heat and power generation system

Abstract

Exergetic and exergoeconomic evaluations have been carried out for a 100kW-class solid-oxide fuel-cell-based combined heat and power generation system, to find out the measures that would improve its efficiency, and, more importantly, its cost effectiveness. The exergoeconomic analysis is an appropriate combination of an exergetic analysis and an economic analysis; through exergoeconomics, we obtain the real cost associated with each stream and with the inefficiencies within each component in a system.For the analyses, the exergies of fuel and the exergies of product for all components have been defined. Subsequently, the exergetic efficiency of each component has been evaluated. By combining the results obtained from an economic analysis with the results of the exergetic analysis, the cost structure of the overall system has been figured out. The components, showing higher exergoeconomic factors such as SOFC stack, fuel blower, heat recovery water pump, and inverter, need reduction of investment cost, even if the associated efficiency would decreased because of this cost reduction. For the components, exhibiting lower exergoeconomic factors such as integrated reformer, fuel/water pre-heater, and air pre-heater, the main focus should be on efficiency improvements, even if higher investment expenditures would be associated with such improvements.