Micro Turbo-Fuel-Cell-Technology

Abstract

The improvement of decentralised energy supply systems has received an important role in the recent years. One option is the combination of SOFC with recuperated MGT. Here, a new strategy for selecting the system parameters, such as the operating temperature of the SOFC, turbine inlet temperature and the pressure ratio of the hybrid system, is presented. By introducing the heat ratio between the heat required to increase the process gas to the SOFC operating temperature and the heat required to raise the SOCF exhaust gas to the TIT, it was found that high efficiency (approx. 68%) is realisable in a compact hybrid system today. Analysis also shows that the HEX-technology is needed to improve the system effectiveness. Also, high recirculation rates with lower TIT can be considered as the future development direction. In addition, a sample configuration of an oil-free MGT rotor unit with high speed foil bearings is presented.