Thermodynamic assessment of biomass-fueled solid oxide fuel cell integrated gas turbine hybrid configuration

Abstract

The combined use of a gas turbine and solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) is investigated. Pine sawdust is utilized as the gasifier's feedstock, and syngas, which is produced as a byproduct, is processed, and used in fuel cells. Steam reformation and the water-gas shift reaction are two examples of electrochemical processes. Unused fuel is expelled from the fuel cell and burned in the combustion chamber. The quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out to examine the energy and exergy analysis of the proposed hybrid system, using the first and second laws of thermodynamics, respectively. The novelty of this paper is to utilize waste heat from the gas turbine is used to minimize the temperature gradient in SOFC. Additionally, the impact of pressure ratio and turbine inlet temperature (TIT) will be discussed in a novel perspective with the help of an unique performance plot. The irreversibility of the system causes exergy destruction, which raises the losses related to the components. Maximum exergy destruction is found in SOFC followed by water heat exchanger and gasifier. At pressure ratio 4 and TIT 1250 K, the maximum thermal efficiency of the suggested hybrid system is 62.12%.