Author : M. Sreeramulu and K. Deepak

Fuel cells offer a more efficient and fuel flexible technology that produces heat and power with lower emissions. It is observed that by integrating fuel cells with the gas turbines, more than 70%thermal efficiency can be achieved from the combined cycle. This proves to be a better exergetic performance when compared to the conventional gas turbine plants. A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-Gas Turbine combined cycle power plant is modeled and parametric exergy analysis is done to evaluate the energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and the exergy destruction of each component in the system. The effect of pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature and ambient temperature on the performance of the system is investigated by using diesel and gasoline as fuels. The outcome of the modeled system reveals that SOFC and combustion chamber are the main sources of exergy destruction. At optimum pressure ratio, the total thermal efficiency using gasoline and diesel is found to be 71.36% and 70.72% while the exergy efficiency is found to be 66.53% and 66.76% respectively.

Keywords: SOFC, Gas turbine, Exergy, Exergy destruction, Combined cycle.

Article published in International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Sciences 2014, Special Issue-2 (Feb 2014)