Biomass Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-Microgas Turbine Hybrid System: Effect of Fuel Composition

Abstract

Performance analysis of the solid oxide fuel cell-microgas turbine (SOFC-MGT) hybrid system has been made. We assume a fuel composition that is methane based with varying concentrations of other species that are expected to be present in biomass-derived gas streams in preparation for the study of biomass fueled SOFC-MGT hybrid system. This is based on the fact that the chemical composition of biomass fuel produced from different fuel production processes is diversified, i.e., in one case one chemical species rich in concentration and in another case another chemical species rich. In the analysis, the multistage model for internal reforming SOFC module developed previously with some modification is used. With this model, studies cover not only the performance of the hybrid system but also the spatial distributions of temperature and concentration of some chemical species inside the module, namely, in the cell stack and in the internal reformer.

Computer simulation of a biomass gasification-solid oxide fuel cell power system using Aspen Plus

“…(9) - (12), shown in Table 2. These equations developed by Song et al [23] take into account realistic electron/ion paths in a tubular SOFC and they have been used in many studies to simulate the ohmic loss for SPGI tubular SOFC systems [6,23,33]. They assumed uniform current density in the circumferential direction and uniform ionic flux in the electrolyte in the radial direction.…”

“…Reported electrical efficiencies for biomass gasification-solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems range from 23-50% [1]. These systems offer highly efficient renewable energy and are modular in nature making them ideal for decentralised combined heat and power (CHP) applications and as a result have recently gained much attention [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Thermodynamic Analysis of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Gas Turbine Systems Operating with Various Biofuels

“…Optimization strategies have also been studied for SOFC-GT integration mostly dealing with system configuration [15,16]. Scupita et al [17] studied the effect of fuel composition limited to varying the composition between CH 4 ,CO, CO 2 , N 2 , and H 2 mainly targeting biomass derived gas streams. Some authors have focused on a fixed GT design as commercially available "off the shelf" designs may not be able to perform optimally in the hybrid system not specifically designed for a particular turbine [18,19].…”

Simulation of a Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack Operating on Biomass Syngas Using Aspen Plus

“…11-14. 29 These equations have been used in many studies 6,7,10,[29][30][31][32][33] to simulate the ohmic loss for SPGI tubular SOFC systems. In addition, the operating cell voltage predicted by Song et al 29 agrees very well with published SPGI data.…”

“…1 These systems offer highly efficient renewable energy and are modular in nature making them ideal for decentralized combined heat and power ͑CHP͒ applications, and as a result, have recently gained much attention. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Gasification occurs when a controlled amount of oxidant ͑pure oxygen, air, and/or steam͒ is reacted at high temperatures with available carbon in biomass or other carbonaceous material within a gasifier, producing a combustible gas. The combustible gas ͑syngas͒ is composed mainly of hydrogen ͑H 2 ͒, carbon monoxide ͑CO͒, methane ͑CH 4 ͒, carbon dioxide ͑CO 2 ͒, water ͑H 2 O͒, and nitrogen ͑N 2 ͒ as well as small amounts of higher hydrocarbons.…”