Simulation of an atmospheric SOFC and gas turbine hybrid system using Aspen Plus software

Abstract

SUMMARY Fuel cell is an energy conversion device that transforms the chemical energy of a fuel gas directly into electrical energy without direct combustion as an intermediate step. One type of fuel cell is the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with the operation temperature of around 1273°K. The high operating temperature of the SOFC also provides excellent possibilities for feeding into a gas turbine (GT) to generate additional electricity. In this paper, an atmospheric SOFC and GT hybrid system have been simulated by application of Aspen Plus existing functions and unit operation modules. The study has shown that the system efficiency and voltage reduce continuously as the current density increases due to increase of Ohmic and concentration losses. However, the output power increases due to enhancement of the current density. Therefore, the system should operate at low current density if the goal is to generate power at higher efficiency. Moreover, if the goal is to produce more power, the system should operate at high current density. The simulation results indicate that the cycle can achieve high electrical generation efficiency (68.2%), which is very attractive compared to the ideal efficiency of combined cycle power plants around 50%. Moreover, a parametric analysis has been performed to assess the effects of the several operating condition variation on the system performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Solid oxide fuel cell reactor analysis and optimisation through a novel multi-scale modelling strategy

“…This flexibility, combined with residence time distribution (RTD) functions, can be used to simulate ideal CSTR and PFR reactors, as well as any reactor that falls between these two ideals (Levenspiel, 1999). These capabilities were not available in prior studies (Doherty et al, 2010;Kattke and Braun, 2010;Ameri and Mohammadi, 2011), since only the simulator"s inbuilt reactor modules were used.…”

“…The insights that can be achieved through this dynamic, mechanistic model are significantly greater than those that can be achieved with only the inbuilt, non-dynamic, standard reactor models used for SOFC simulation in the literature (Zhang et al 2005;Ameri and Mohammadi, 2011). Detailed examination and validation of the compartment scale model is necessary to provide a trusted foundation for the construction of higher scale models, including the integrated multi-scale SOFC model.…”

“…As a result, the application of detailed, mechanistic models requires complex mathematical and numerical algorithms, whilst end users, particularly industrial ones, usually seek convenient, integrated modelling and simulation tools: modular process simulators, for instance. Despite some limited work published in this area (Zhang et al, 2005;Doherty et al, 2010;Kattke and Braun, 2010;Ameri and Mohammadi, 2011), demonstrations of system scale modelling and simulation of SOFCs using commercial simulation packages are scarce. Unfortunately, the current widely used, commercial process simulators, including Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS, do not include an inbuilt module for a SOFC unit (Zhang et al, 2005) that covers the associated transport and reaction phenomena (Hussain et al, 2007;Ho et al, 2009).…”

Thermodynamic analysis of H2production from CaO sorption-enhanced methane steam reforming thermally coupled with chemical looping combustion as a novel technology

“…The effect of Ca/ M ratio on reformer gas has been studied at 1.5 Mpa, a M (fuel)/ M ratio of 0.2, and a Ni/ M ratio of 0.8 (Figure ). The advantage of using CaO in MSR process is that a H 2 ‐rich and CO x ‐poor reformer gas can be obtained that eliminates the excessive energy required for H 2 purification and especially suits the operation of the fuel cells . An equilibrium dry H 2 concentration of 42.4% and CO 2 concentration of 10.3% are reached when CaO is absent.…”

Study on a zero CO2emission SOFC hybrid power system integrated with OTM using CO2as sweep gas

“…A SOFC/GT configuration with and without a tail-end CO 2 separation plant has been compared [3]. The simulation results point out that the system achieves high power generation efficiency (68.2%), whereas the ideal efficiency of combined cycle power plants is just around 50% [5]. An atmospheric SOFC and GT hybrid system is simulated by Aspen Plus through existing functions and unit operation modules.…”