Introducing and investigation of a combined molten carbonate fuel cell, thermoelectric generator, linear fresnel solar reflector and power turbine combined heating and power process

Abstract

Abstract In the present study, a combined heat and power process consists of molten carbonate fuel cell, thermoelectric generator, linear Fresnel solar reflector and power turbine is introduced and investigated from energy, exergy and thermodynamic points of view. Fuel cell produces electrical and thermal power. A part of waste heat from the fuel cell is sent to the thermoelectric generator to produce additional power and the remaining enters the environment. The solar field as a heat exchanger generates a part of the required thermal power of the proposed process. Linear Fresnel solar reflector with duty of 1728 kW is used too. Numerical modeling and thermodynamic analysis of the proposed system is done using MATLAB and HYSYS softwares, respectively. The results were discussed in two scenarios: (1) investigation of fuel cell and thermoelectric generator hybrid system and (2) investigation of whole combined heat and power process. Results indicate that the overall and electrical efficiencies of the proposed system are 64.93% and 31.57%, respectively. Also, in this process, 41728.8 kW of exergy is destroyed and the process total exergy efficiency is gained 0.12%. Finally sensitivity analysis of the fuel cell, turbines, solar system and thermoelectric generator against effective parameters is investigated.