A fuel cell free piston gas turbine hybrid architecture for high-efficiency, load-flexible power generation

Gainey, Brian; Lawler, Benjamin

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116242

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…[1][2][3][4] A promising approach to increase electrical conversion efficiency and reduce emissions is the integration of SOFCs with downstream energy conversion devices such as gas turbines (GTs) and internal combustion engines (ICEs). [5][6][7] In a solid oxide fuel cell -gas turbine (SOFC-GT) energy system, the combustor is used to burn the high-exergy anode off-gas from the SOFC to produce extra shaft work for the hybrid system that is converted to electrical power. Hybrid SOFC-GT systems, although offering promising efficiency advantages, are limited to medium and large scale electricity generation applications because of the complexity, size, expense, and restrictive functioning characteristics of GTs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating anode off-gas under spark-ignition combustion for SOFC-ICE hybrid systems

Ran

Longtin

Assanis

2021

International Journal of Engine Research

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Solid oxide fuel cell – internal combustion engine (SOFC-ICE) hybrid systems are an attractive solution for electricity generation. The system can achieve up to 70% theoretical electric power conversion efficiency through energy cascading enabled by utilizing the anode off-gas from the SOFC as the fuel source for the ICE. Experimental investigations were conducted with a single cylinder Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine by altering fuel-air equivalence ratio (ϕ), and compression ratio (CR) to study the engine load, combustion characteristics, and emissions levels of dry SOFC anode off-gas consisting of 33.9% H2, 15.6% CO, and 50.5% CO2. The combustion efficiency of the anode off-gas was directly evaluated by measuring the engine-out CO emissions. The highest net-indicated fuel conversion efficiency of 31.3% occurred at ϕ = 0.90 and CR = 13:1. These results demonstrate that the anode off-gas can be successfully oxidized using a spark ignition combustion mode. The fuel conversion efficiency of the anode tail gas is expected to further increase in a more modern engine architecture that can achieve increased burn rates in comparison to the CFR engine. NOx emissions from the combustion of anode off-gas were minimal as the cylinder peak temperatures never exceeded 1800 K. This experimental study ultimately demonstrates the viability of an ICE to operate using an anode off-gas, thus creating a complementary role for an ICE to be paired with a SOFC in a hybrid power generation plant.

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