Thermodynamic Performance Study on Solar-Assisted SOFC - GT Distributed Energy System Fueled by Methanol

This paper puts forward a new kind of SOFC - GT distributed energy system with methanol as fuel, through the absorption refrigeration (AR) and heat exchanger (HE) to recover the waste heat of GT. Based on thermodynamic analysis model, the performances, especially the exergy losses of the unit as well as its subsystems mainly including eight parts were obtained. The chemical energy of the fuel will directly be changed into electricity. Energy conversion efficiency can be as high as 85% above. The theoretical value has been paid attention by the researchers from all over the world. Comparative study in this paper, the simulation calculation and thermal performance analysis of the performance of two kinds of SOFC - GT is conducted. The results show that the total power generation efficiency of pure SOFC system, Case A and Case B are 19.28%, 55.79% and 52.26% respectively. The total thermal efficiency of Case A and B are 83.44 % and 82.79 % respectively. Additionally, the changing laws of total exergy loss, energy and exergy efficiency of integrated system at different loads also were studied. The results provide not only theory basis and scientific support for the design of the SOFC - GT distributed energy system with absorption refrigeration and heat exchanger recovering waste heat, but also a new scheme of energy saving and optimization for the units.