EXERGOECONOMIC EVALUATION OF A SOLID-OXIDE FUEL-CELL-BASED COMBINED HEAT AND POWER GENERATION SYSTEM

An exergoeconomic evaluation has been conducted for a 100kW-class SOFC power generation system, in order to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the system. The exergoeconomic analysis is an appropriate combination of an exergy analysis and an economic analysis. Through an exergoeconomic analysis, we obtain the real cost associated with each stream and component in a system. We also can calculate the portion of the cost that is associated with the exergy destruction within each component. The analyzed system, a 100kW SOFC power generation system, consists of SOFC stack, reformer, catalytic combustor, heat exchangers, pumps, blowers, inverter, and HRSG for heat recovery. As a first step, mass, energy, and exergy balances were formulated. Then a conventional exergetic analysis (based on the concept of exergy of fuel / exergy of product) was performed. Next, a levelized cost for each component was calculated based on the purchased equipment costs using the Total Revenue Requirement (TRR) method with appropriate economic assumptions. Finally, the cost structure of the SOFC was figured out through an exergoeconomic evaluation. Finally suggestions have been made for reducing the cost associated with the product of the system.