Abstract
Solid oxide fuel cell combined with heat and power (SOFC-CHP) system is a distributed power generation system with low pollution and high efficiency. In this paper, a 10 kW SOFC-CHP system model using syngas was built in Aspen plus. Key operating parameters, such as steam to fuel ratio, stack temperature, reformer temperature, air flow rate, and air preheating temperature, were analyzed. Optimization was conducted based on the simulation results. Results suggest that higher steam to fuel ratio is beneficial to the electrical efficiency, but it might decrease the gross system efficiency. Higher stack and reformer temperatures contribute to the electrical efficiency, and the optimal operating temperatures of stack and reformer when considering the stack degradation are 750 °C and 700 °C, respectively. The air preheating temperature barely affects the electrical efficiency but affects the thermal efficiency and the gross system efficiency, the recommended value is around 600 °C under the reference condition.
Highlights
The global demand for electricity and energy is constantly increasing
This study suggested that enlarging the fuel utilization rate and the anode off-gas recirculation would promote the electrical efficiency but suppress the thermal efficiency of the system
The results revealed that the system fed with pure methane had higher electrical efficiency, but the overall system efficiency could be higher when the fuel was mixed with hydrogen
Summary
The global demand for electricity and energy is constantly increasing. China, India, and the United States of America are the three most populous countries in the world, and the three most energy-consuming countries (Wei et al 2020). Lyu et al (2020) studied the effects of different fuel flow rate, operating current, anode off-gas recirculation (AOGR) ratio on the performance of SOFC stacks based on the Aspen software. Xu et al (2013) studied the impact of the cell output voltage and the fuel flow rate on the system performance, indicating that the cell voltage decreased but the SOFC stack efficiency and the electrical efficiency of the system increased when the average current density rose. This study suggested that enlarging the fuel utilization rate and the anode off-gas recirculation would promote the electrical efficiency but suppress the thermal efficiency of the system. Their study indicated that with the increase of system output power, the electrical efficiency of both the hydrogen-fueled and methane-fueled SOFC systems would decrease after the initial increase. The influence of key parameters such as steam–fuel ratio, stack working temperature, reformer temperature, air flow rate, and preheating temperature on the system performance was investigated
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