Abstract
High-temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cells are a promising technology for distributed power generation thanks to their high-power density, high efficiency, low emissions, fast start-up, and excellent dynamic characteristics, together with their high tolerance to CO poisoning (i.e., CO in the feed up to 3%). In this paper, we present an innovative, simple, and efficient hybrid high-temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cell gas turbine combined heat and power system whose fuel processor relies on partial oxidation. Moreover, we demonstrate that the state-of-the-art fuel processors based on steam reformation may not be the optimal choice for high-temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cells’ power plants. Through steady-state modeling, we determine the optimal operating conditions and the performance of the proposed innovative power plant. The results show that the proposed hybrid combined heat and power system achieves an electrical efficiency close to 50% and total efficiency of over 85%, while a state-of-the-art system based on steam reformation has an electrical efficiency lower than 45%. The proposed innovative plant consists of a regenerative scheme with a limited power ratio between the turbine and fuel cell and limited optimal compression ratio. Therefore, micro-gas turbines are the most fitting type of turbomachinery for the hybrid system.
Highlights
We study the performance of a hybrid HT-Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs)-Gas Turbine (GT) Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system whose fuel processor runs on the Partial Oxidation (POX) reaction to produce hydrogen
We study the performance of the HT-PEMFC stack through a 1D flux-based mathematical model [32,124,125,126,127,128,129,130], where the molar fraction of reactants and products vary according to the thickness of the anode and the cathode
Endothermic steam-reformation-based fuel processors are not the best choice for HT-PEMFC
Summary
The development of high-efficiency distributed energy conversion systems is a major achievement towards the reduction in anthropic emissions of greenhouse gases and the increase in energy accessibility [1,2]. Change [3], if the CO2 concentration remains below 450 ppm, the average global temperature rise should remain below 2 ◦ C. A global temperature increase of over 2 ◦ C could significantly affect human life through sea level rises and more frequent extreme weather events [4]. Energy generation is one of the major sources of CO2 emissions, accounting, together with cement, for more than 35 billion tons in 2019 [7]. In the US, the percentage of CO2 for electricity generation and energy-related uses is 61% of the total emissions [8], while in the European union, the share of CO2 emitted by energy generation ranges from 10% to 70% [9]
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