SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL HYBRID SYSTEMS FED BY LIQUID FUELS FOR DISTRIBUTED POWER GENERATION

Solid oxide fuel cell hybridization with micro gas turbines is an attractive option for distributed power generation up to a few MW, allowing to obtain high efficiency and low pollutant emission. In this publication, a comparative thermoeconomic analysis of SOFC hybrid systems with methanol and kerosene fuel processors is presented. Methanol can be produced from renewable sources. Also, hybrid systems fuelled by methanol can achieve high efficiencies due to effective heat recovery from the exhaust gases in the low temperature reformer. Kerosene is representative of conventional liquid fossil fuels, and it is also a typical fuel for aerospace applications. A 500 kW class hybrid system was chosen for this analysis and the performance was calculated based on macroscopic component models. The results were obtained with WTEMP software, developed by the Thermochemical Power Group of the University of Genoa. The choice of the fuel processing strategy and the influence of the main design parameters on the thermoeconomic characteristics of hybrid systems were investigated.