Fuel Cell Temperature Control with a Pre-Combustor in SOFC Gas Turbine Hybrids during Load Changes

• The use of high temperature fuel cells, such as Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs), for power generation is considered a very efficient and clean solution to conservation of energy resources. When the SOFC is coupled with a gas turbine, the global system efficiency can go beyond 70% on natural gas LHV. However, durability of the ceramic material and system operability can be significantly penalized by thermal stresses due to temperature fluctuations and non-even temperature distributions. Thermal management of the cell during load following is therefore essential.The purpose of this work was to develop and test a pre-combustor model for real-time applications in hardware-based simulations, and to implement a control strategy to keep constant cathode inlet temperature during different operative conditions. The real-time model of the pre-combustor was incorporated into the existing SOFC model and tested in a hybrid system facility, where a physical gas turbine and hardware components were coupled with a cyber-physical fuel cell for flexible, accurate, and cost-reduced simulations.The control of the fuel flow to the pre-combustor was proven to be effective in maintaining a constant cathode inlet temperature during a step change in fuel cell load. With a 20 A load variation, the maximum temperature deviation from the nominal value was below 0.3% (3K). Temperature gradients along the cell were maintained below 10 K/cm. An efficiency analysis was performed in order to evaluate the impact of the pre-combustor on the overall system efficiency.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Energiteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Energy Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

SOFC

hybrid system

control

dynamics

Energy- and Environmental Engineering

energi- och miljöteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)