Mathematical Modeling of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and Gas Turbine Hybrid System for Enhancing Thermal Performance

Fuel cell systems are environment friendly. It is a clean energy generator but it has a low efficiency when it is used alone. Gas turbine also has a lower efficiency around 30% when working alone. Hybrid system is the combination of gas turbine and fuel cell to achieve a higher efficiency around 60-70%. The fuel cell generates the major portion of the plant power output and the gas turbine generates a fraction of total power output. The major advantage of fuel cell is that it is not a heat engine so its efficiency can be 100 % as it is not limited by the Carnot efficiency. Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) combined with gas turbine (GT) hybrid plants produce 50 times less nitrous oxide than current conventional gas turbine and 75% less carbon dioxide than coal- fired power plants. This type of hybrid system has a wide application such as decentralised electricity supply in houses and buildings, heat and cooling energy. The present paper includes reviews of the work done in the field of SOFC/GT hybrid system, mathematical modelling using Methane as a fuel to the hybrid system is presented and future scope of work is discussed.