Techno-economic-environmental analysis and optimization of biomass-based SOFC poly-generation system

Abstract

This study presents and investigates a biomass-based SOFC assisted carbon capture poly-generation system, which is integrated with the transcritical CO2 cycle, recompression supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle and double-effect LiBr absorption refrigeration cycle. In addition to supplying cooling, heating and power output, the proposed system can also provide the recovered condensate and the captured CO2. The techno-economic-environmental analysis and four-criteria optimization are performed to comprehensively investigate the system performance. The simulation results show that under the design condition, the overall efficiency, exergy efficiency and total cost rate of the system reach 93.00 %, 29.95 %, and 17.75 $/h. Parametric analysis reveals that the net power output reaches a maximum of 99.66 kW at the SOFC inlet temperature of 550 °C and the current density of 3680 A/m2. Besides, the four-criteria (the thermal efficiency, the exergy efficiency, the total cost rate and the life-cycle CO2 emissions) optimization results demonstrate that the exergy efficiency is increased by 3.19 % and the total cost rate is reduced by 21.18 % in the optimal condition compared with the base case. This work can provide references for the development and exploration of high-efficiency, low-emission, low-cost and multi-functional technologies for the biomass-based SOFC hybrid power system.