Energy and economic analysis of an integrated solid oxide fuel cell system with a total site utility system: A case study for petrochemical utilization

Providing utilities needed in the site with lowest cost and highest efficiency is one of the main concerns of the process industries owners. Over a case study in this research, the total site utility system was optimized at first and then energy and economic analysis of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system was performed. Next, integration of the fuel cell with total site utility system was evaluated during two scenarios: first, steam supply through heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) of gas turbine (heat follow), and second supply of the entire generated power of gas turbine. According to the evaluation conducted, if it is aimed to supply the entire steam generated by HRSG of gas turbine, it will be more cost-effective to select SOFC system in this regard. So if the goal is to change the gas turbine system into SOFC system, system selection will be done based on supply of the entire steam generated using HRSG. In this case, 10 SOFC systems will be required by which about 27.56 MW power can be generated.