Integration of a solid oxide fuel cell into a 10 MW gas turbine power plant

Abstract

Power generation using gas turbine power plants operating on the Brayton cycle suffers from low efficiencies. In this work, a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is proposed for integration into a 10 MW gas turbine power plant, operating at 30% efficiency. The SOFC system utilizes four heat exchangers for heat recovery from both the turbine outlet and the fuel cell outlet to ensure a sufficiently high SOFC temperature. The power output of the hybrid plant is 37 MW at 66.2% efficiency. A thermo-economic model predicts a payback period of less than four years, based on future projected SOFC cost estimates. © 2010 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.