Thermodynamic Performance Study of the SOFC-GT-RC System Fueled by LNG With CO2 Recovery

Distributed energy technology is an important developing direction of the future energy technology. This paper puts forward a distributed energy system named SOFC-GT-RC (solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine-recovering carbon dioxide) with liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel and recovering carbon dioxide. In the system, the cold energy of LNG can not only cool the compressor inlet air to reduce the consumption of compressor work, but also to supply cold energy and to recover CO2. Based on the mathematical model of each part, the thermodynamic calculation model of the whole system is built by FORTRAN, which is embedded in ASPEN PLUS. The results of calculation indicate the thermal efficiency and total power efficiency are 74.5% and 56.7% while the exergy efficiency is 61.8%. In addition, some operating parameters such as fuel utilization factor and fuel flow rate are selected. Based on these operating parameters, the new system thermodynamic performance is studied. The results point that this SOFC-GT-RC system fueled by LNG increases the total power and decreases waste of cold energy and the pollution of the environment, which would be an effective utilization style of energy in China's LNG satellite stations.