Solid oxide fuel cell integrated blade cooled gas turbine hybrid power cycle

Abstract

The integrated combine power system, specifically the gas turbine (GT) cycle with solid oxide fuel (SOFC) system, is gaining researchers’ interest in terms of renewable energy production and higher performance. Thermodynamic modeling for the SOFC-GT hybrid cycle is discussed in this chapter. The proposed hybrid cycle has successfully integrated a high-temperature SOFC with an intercooled recuperated-blade cooled gas turbine cycle. The waste heat from the gas turbine outlet has been perfectly exploited to power up the fuel cell system using Recuperator. The air–film blade cooling scheme was used to keep the temperature of the gas turbine blades within the allowable range. The SOFC-GT hybrid cycle was run in steady-state, and the governing equations for the hybrid cycle’s components were solved using the existing MATLAB program. The effects of critical operating parameters including turbine inlet temperature, pressure ratio, fuel consumption ratio, and air-recirculation ratio are investigated. The addition of a fuel cell has resulted in a large improvement in the overall hybrid cycle performance of the hybrid system, according to the obtained results. As the degree of recuperation increases, the efficiency of a fuel cell (SOFC) improves significantly. A sensitivity analysis for the hybrid cycle was performed to verify the effect of key operating parameters, and the maximum efficiency of 73% was achieved. Furthermore, in order to expand this analysis, an exclusive output chart for power plant designers has been plotted.