An Energy Production System Powered by Solar Heat with Biogas Dry Reforming Reactor and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Abstract

In this paper, an energy system consisting of solar collector, biogas dry reforming reactor and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been proposed. The heat produced from the concentrating solar collector is used to drive a biogas dry reforming reactor in order to produce H2 as a fuel for SOFC, in such as system. The aim of this study is to clarify the impact of climate data on the performance of solar collector with various sizes/designs. The temperature of heat transfer fluid produced by the solar collector is calculated by adopting the climate data for Nagoya city in Japan in 2021. The amount of H2 produced from the biogas dry reforming reactor and the power generated by SOFC were simulated. The results show the temperature of heat transfer fluid (Tfb) and Tfb ratio (a) based on the length of absorber (dx) = 1 m have a peak near the noon following the trend of solar intensity (I). Results also revealed that a increases with increase in dx. It is found that the differences of Tfb and a between dx = 2 m and dx = 3 m are larger than those between dx = 1 m and dx = 2 m. It is revealed that Tfb and a are higher in spring and summer. dx = 4 m is the optimum length of solar absorber. The amount of H2 produced from the biogas dry reforming reactor as well as the power generated by SOFC is the highest in August, resulting that it is prefer to produce H2 and to generate SOFC in summer.