Energy 127 (2017) 743e755

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Energy
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Cycle analysis of solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine hybrid systems

integrated ethanol steam reformer: Energy management
Dang Saebea a, Loredana Magistri b, Aristide Massardo b, Amornchai Arpornwichanop c, *
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Burapha University, Chonburi 20131, Thailand
b
Thermochemical Power Group (TPG), DIME, University of Genoa, Via Montallegro 1, Genoa 16145, Italy
c
Computational Process Engineering Research Unit, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
10330, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine (SOFC-GT) hybrid system that uses such liquid fuels as ethanol is
Received 3 November 2016 attractive for distributed power generation for applications in remote rural areas or as an auxiliary power
Received in revised form unit. The SOFC system includes units that require and generate heat; thus, its energy management is
13 March 2017
important to improve its efciency. In this study, a SOFC-GT integrated system with the external steam
Accepted 23 March 2017
Available online 28 March 2017
reforming of ethanol to produce hydrogen for the SOFC is proposed. Two SOFC-GT hybrid systems using a
high-temperature heat exchanger and cathode exhaust gas recirculation are considered under isothermal
conditions. The effects of key operating parameters, such as pressure, fuel use and turbomachinery ef-
Keywords:
Solid oxide fuel cell
ciency, on the SOFC-GT hybrid system performance are discussed. The simulation results indicate that
Gas turbine recycling the cathode exhaust gas from the SOFC-GT system requires less fresh air from the compressor,
Hybrid system to maintain the SOFC stack temperature, and the heat recovered from the SOFC system is sufcient to
Design supply both the fuel processor and air pre-heater. In contrast, an external heat is needed for the SOFC-GT
Energy management system coupled to a recuperative heat exchanger.
Cathode recirculation 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Recuperative heat exchanger

1. Introduction generally requires power capacities of approximately multi-

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are the most promising fuel cell
technology that can be used in a wide range of commercial ap-
plications. Because SOFCs operate at high temperatures, their
high-quality exhaust gas can be used for power generation via a
gas turbine (GT) [1]. Combining SOFC and GT (SOFC-GT) systems is
considered for potential power plants with high electrical ef-
ciencies of up to 60% [2]. Most SOFC-GT systems are developed
using a natural gas supply for a hydrogen production unit. Due to
environmental concerns, the utilization of renewable fuels,
particularly solid biomass, for hydrogen production has received
considerable attention [3e5]. However, the SOFC system inte-
grated with biomass conversion units for hydrogen generation is
rather complex caused by a requirement of biomass pretreatment
and gas cleaning processes [6]. Alternatively, generating distrib-
uted power using liquid fuels is interesting, especially for appli-
cations in remote areas and as an auxiliary power unit, which
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Amornchai.A@chula.ac.th (A. Arpornwichanop).
hundred kW [7].
Of the various liquid fuels, ethanol is attractive for electricity
generation using SOFC systems from a thermodynamic and
economical viewpoint [8]. Using ethanol in SOFCs provides several
advantages; it has a relatively high hydrogen content and is easy to
store, handle and transport safely due to its low toxicity and vola-
tility. Furthermore, ethanol can be renewably produced via the
fermentation of agricultural products. In general, ethanol can be
internally reformed into a hydrogen-rich gas within a fuel cell
stack, referred to as an internal reforming SOFC (IR-SOFC),
because the SOFC and reforming process operate in the same
temperature range. The advantage of this approach is the use of the
heat generated by the electrochemical reaction for the endothermic
steam reformation. However, the direct feeding of ethanol into the
fuel cell may degrade the anode catalyst due to carbon formation,
which would decrease the fuel cell performance [9]. Therefore,
reforming ethanol using an external reformer should be
considered.
Operating a SOFC with an external reformer requires much air
ow to control the fuel cell temperature, which increases the en-
ergy consumption of the air preheater [10] and degrades the fuel

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.03.105
0360-5442/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
744 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755
cell system efciency. A number of researchers have focused on
improving the SOFC-GT hybrid system performance. Park et al. [11]
investigated an SOFC-GT hybrid system operating under ambient
pressure and pressurized conditions. The pressurized SOFC system
exhibited better efciency due to its more effective utilization of
the gas turbine. Yang et al. [12] analyzed two congurations for the
hybrid SOFC system with internal and external reforming. The ef-
fect of the fuel cell and turbine temperatures on the hybrid system
performance was examined. Furthermore, different schemes for
enhancing the system efciency of the hybrid SOFC-GT system were
proposed, for example, an SOFC-GT hybrid system with a retrot-
ting system using steam injection [13,14], an SOFC combined with
multiple GT stages [15e18] and an SOFC-GT hybrid system with
inter-cooling from an air compressor [19,20].
SOFC-GT hybrid systems are generally designed using a recu-
perator to recover heat from the turbine exhaust gas to preheat
the air fed into the SOFC stack. However, the air preheating unit
still requires a signicant external heat input because the recu-
perator is unable to provide all of the heat required to preheat air
to the desired temperature [21]. Although adding more fuel to the
combustor can increase the preheating air inlet temperature, this
approach increases the inlet gas turbine temperature, which is not
suitable for SOFC hybrid systems with small-scale gas turbines.
Using a high-temperature heat exchanger (or recuperative heat
exchanger) coupled with a recuperator is considered an attractive
design for improving the heat transfer efciency from the turbine
exhaust [22e25]. In addition, recirculating the cathode gas from
the SOFC system is a potential method for improving the SOFC
system efciency by minimizing the heat load of the air pre-
heating unit [26e28]. The conguration design of the SOFC-GT
system with the recirculation of cathode exhaust gas is inter-
esting because recirculating cathode gas can affect a bottoming
cycle regarding to turbine performance and system efciency. To
date, the study of recirculating the cathode exhaust gas on a
reduction of energy input for air preheater in the SOFC-GT system
has been limited. A detailed study on such an SOFC-GT hybrid
system should be performed to better understand the SOFC sys-
tem and determine a suitable conguration for the efcient use of
energy.
The innovative aspect of this study is the focusing on the design
and heat recovery of a pressurized SOFC-GT hybrid system inte-
grated with an ethanol steam reformer to produce hydrogen for an
SOFC system. Two pressurized SOFC-GT hybrid system congura-
tions are considered and differ in their air preheating scheme: an
SOFC-GT hybrid system with a recuperative heat exchanger and one
recirculating the cathode exhaust gas. The energy management and
heat recovery within the SOFC systems are investigated. The effects
of key operating parameters, such as the operating pressure, fuel
utilization, current density and turbomachinery efciency, on the
system performance are also studied.
2. SOFC-GT hybrid system
Fig. 1a and b shows the SOFC-GT systems with a recuperative
heat exchanger (RHE) and cathode exhaust gas recirculation (CGR)
studied in this work, respectively. The pressurized SOFC-GT system
using ethanol consists of a pump, evaporator, heat exchanger, fuel
processor, SOFC stack, combustor, gas turbine and compressor.
Ethanol and water are pumped and vaporized using exhaust from a
recuperator as a heat source before mixing in a mixer and pre-
heating to the desired reformer temperature, where a synthesis gas
with a high hydrogen content is generated by the ethanol steam
reforming. The synthesis gas is preheated to the SOFC operating
temperature and fed into the anode side, while the air is com-
pressed, preheated and sent to the cathode side of the SOFC. The
SOFC generates electrical power and steam via the electrochemical
reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in air. A high-temperature
cathode exhaust gas was used to supply heat to the steam reformer
before feeding it into a combustor to burn with the residual fuel in
the anode exhaust gas.
The two SOFC system congurations studied here differ in their
heat recovery method for the air preheating unit, as depicted in
Fig. 1a and b. For the SOFC-GT system with RHE, the exhaust gas
from the combustor is sent to the high-temperature heat
exchanger, known as a recuperative heat exchanger, and then the
gas turbine. The hot gas expands in the gas turbine to produce
electricity. Compressed air from the compressor is heated to the
SOFC inlet temperature by the recuperator and high-temperature
heat exchanger. The SOFC-GT system with CGR recycles a portion
of the cathode exhaust mixed with compressed air using the
blower and is heated by the turbine exhaust gas via the recuperator.
It is noted that the energy management of the SOFC-GT hybrid
systems with a recuperative heat exchanger and cathode exhaust
gas recirculation is designed based on the pinch analysis for ef-
cient energy usage.
3. Model of the SOFC-GT hybrid system
Each component in SOFC-GT system is based on the following
assumptions: (i) the operation is considered at a steady state, (ii)
the heat loss for each unit in the SOFC system is negligible, (iii) all
gases behave like ideal-gases, (iv) the operating pressure and
temperature are constant and (v) the fuel cell voltage is constant
along the cell coordinates during the operation. The overall system
model is divided into four major subsystems: the fuel processor
subsystem, the SOFC subsystem, the gas turbine subsystem, and the
auxiliary unit. The reactions and equations of each subsystem are
concluded in Table 1.
Ethanol in the fuel processor is converted into a synthesis gas
with a high hydrogen content via a steam reforming reaction before
being fed into the SOFC. The main ethanol steam reforming re-
actions that produce the hydrogen are as follows [29]:
C2 H5 OH H2 O/4H2 2CO (1)
CO H2 O/H2 CO2 (2)
CO 3H2 /CH4 H2 O (3)
The ethanol steam reforming process is assumed to be at
chemical equilibrium. The substance compositions (i.e., hydrogen,
carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, steam and ethanol)
can be stoichiometrically determined using the reaction equilib-
rium constants [30].
A reformed gas consisting of H2, CO, H2O, CO2 and CH4 is fed into
a fuel channel, while air is simultaneously fed into an air channel.
Generally, hydrocarbon fuels in the anode channel can be further
converted into hydrogen and carbon dioxide via the steam refor-
mation and water gas shift reactions in the presence of the SOFC
anode catalyst. Hydrogen is consumed when generating electricity
via the electrochemical reaction while the oxygen in air is reduced
to oxygen ions at the cathode [31,32]. The following reactions occur
in the SOFC fuel and air channels:
CH4 H2 O43H2 CO (4)
CO H2 O4H2 CO2 (5)
H2 1=2O2 4H2 O (6)
 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755 745

(a)
22
Reformer
1 2 3 7 8
Ethanol Mixer 9
Vaporizer

6 Heat

21

Cathode

Anode
4 5
Water 14
Vaporizer
15
SOFC
10
16
Combustion
chamber
20

17
12 13

19
11
Air
18

Compressor Turbine

(b)

24

3
Reformer
1 2 7 8 9
Ethanol Mixer
Vaporizer

23
6

4 5
Water 18
14
Cathode

Vaporizer
Anode

19

22

SOFC
15 10
17 16
12 13 Mixer

11 21
Air Combustion
chamber

Compressor Turbine

20

Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of pressurized SOFC-GT hybrid system using a (a) high-temperature heat exchanger and (b) recirculated cathode exhaust.

The rates of reaction in the cell are shown in Table 2. During
actual fuel cell operations, an internal cell voltage loss causes the
actual voltage (V) to decrease from the open-circuit voltage. These
losses rely on the operating temperature, current density and
species concentrations. The three dominant voltage losses are
ohmic loss (hohm ), concentration overpotential (hconc ) and activa-
tion overpotential (hact ). The parameters of electrochemical model
are available in Saebea et al. [28], Aguiar et al. [33] and Patchar-
avorachot et al. [34].
In this study, the SOFC is assumed to operate under adia-
batic conditions with an excess air feed to control the cell
operating temperature. The air ow rate can be calculated from
the energy balance around the control volume enclosing the
fuel cell.
746 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755

Table 1
Model of each component for analysis of SOFC-GT hybrid system.

Unit Parameters Equation

 v
Fuel processor Composition of reformer products Q P
yi 4i vi P
P0
Keq v i vi and yi Pni n
i
i i

SOFC Mass balance: Fuel channel: (i CH4, H2O, CO, H2 and CO2)
P 
dCi;f
dx
u1f ni;k Rk h1f ; Ci;f  0
Ci;f
k2fi;ii;iii g x0

Air channel: (i O2 and N2)


u1a ni;iii Riii h1 ; Ci;a x0 Ci;a
dCi;a 0
dx
! a ! ! !
Energy balance: P in in P in in P P
n_ i;an hi;an n_ i;ca hi;ca  n_ out out
i;an hi;an  n_ out out
i;ca hi;ca  Psofc 0
i i i i
Electrochemical model:
Actual voltage V EOCV  hact  hohm  hconc
"    #
Activation overpotentials (Anode) pH2 ;TPB pH2 O;TPB anF
j j0;anode pH2;f exp a<T
nF h
act;anode  pH2 O;f exp  1<T hact;anode
    
(Cathode) 1anF
j j0;cathode exp a<T
nF h
act;cathode  exp  <T hact;cathode

Ohmic loss hohm jRohm

! !
Concentration overpotentials pH2 O;TPB pH2; f pO2 ;a
hconc <T
2F ln pH2 O;f pH2 ;TPB <T
4F ln pO2 ;TPB

Gas turbine Turbine power: P in _ in  P out _ out 

Pt n_ i;t hi;t  n_ i;t hi;t
i i
  ! 
Turbine outlet temperature: pout g1
Ttout Ttin 1  ht 1  t
pin
g
t

Compressor power: P  in _ in  P  in _ in 
Pc n_ i;c hi;c  n_ i;c hi;c
i out i in
0 1
Compressor outlet temperature:   
g1
pout
Tcout Tcin @1 h1 c
pin
g 1 A
c c

Pump Power of pump pout pin n_i;

in

Wi;pum i;pum i;pum

hpum ri
pum

Vaporizer Heat of ethanol vaporizer _ out _ in

QC2 H5 OH;vap n_ out _ in
C2 H5 OH;vap hC2 H5 OH;vap  nC2 H5 OH;vap hC2 H5 OH;vap
Heat of water vaporizer _ out
_ in
QH2 O;vap n_ out _ in
H2 O;vap hH2 O;vap  nH2 O;vap hH2 O;vap
! ! ! !
Heat exchanger Energy balance P in in P in P out _ out P in
n_ i;cool h_ i;cool n_ i;hot h_ i;hot 
in
n_ i;cool hi;cool  n_ in _
i;hot hi;hot 0
i i i i
Heat exchanger effectiveness out
Tcool Tcool
in
REC in
Thot Tcool
in

Mixer Mass balance n_ out _ in _ in

i;mix ni;mix1 ni;mix2
! ! !
Energy balance P in in P in P
n_ h_ n_ _ in  n_ out
out
_ 0
i;mix1 i;mix2 i;mix2 hi;mix2 i;mix hi;mix
i i i
_ _
i;an ni;ca yi;k k1;cb yi;k k2;cb
After-burner Mass balance nout nout out
i;cb
! !  
Energy balance P in _ in P in _ in P out _ out
n_ h
i;an i;an n_ h  n_ h 0
i;rca i;rca i;ab i;ab
i i o

Table 2
Reaction rates in the SOFC. javg LW
Uf   (8)
Reaction Rate 2F 4n_ in _ in _ in
CH4 nH2 nCO
!
(i) Steam reforming reaction
Eact
Ri kSR pCH4 ;f exp RTsofc
! Psofc; DC javg  Vactual  Acell (9)
(ii) Water gas shift reaction pCO ;f pH ;f
Rii kWGSR pCO;f 1  Keq pCO;f
2 2
pH O;f 2 The electrical power generated by the SOFC is a direct current
(iii) Electrochemical reaction Riii 2Fj (DC), which can be converted into an alternating current (AC) using
an inverter. The DC-AC inverter efciency is specied as 94% [35]
and the actual SOFC power output is:

Psofc;AC Psofc;DC  hinvert (10)

The average current density (javg ) produced can be calculated to
evaluate the SOFC performance by: The performance index of the SOFC system is related to the SOFC
electrical efciency as:
Z0
1
javg jzdz (7) Psofc
L hel;sofc (11)
L n_ CH4 LHVCH4 n_ H2 LHVH2 n_ CO LHVCO
The overall fuel utilization (Uf ) and electrical power output The SOFC exhaust gas is fed into a gas turbine to increase the
(Psofc ) are dened as: power produced. The power obtained from the gas turbine is used
 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755 747

to drive an air compressor. The net electric power output of the gas
turbine section can be expressed as:
W_ sp Psofc;AC Pgt  PH2 O;pum  PC2 H5 OH;pum  Pblower (17)
Pgt Pt  Pc hm hg (12) n_ in
air

Auxiliary units compose of pump, vaporizer, heat exchanger,
mixer, and afterburner. Pump is used to increase the mechanical
energy of ethanol and water before they are fed to a mixer. The
power of pump is based on Bernoulli equation. The required heat
input for ethanol and water vaporizer and mixer can be considered
from mass and energy balances. For the heat exchangers, the outlet
temperature of the cold stream can be determined from heat
exchanger effectiveness whereas that of the hot stream is
computed from energy balance.
The residual ue gas at the anode outlet and the unused oxidant
gas at the cathode outlet are mixed and burnt in a combustor. The
reactions occurred at the combustor are as follows:
H2 0:5O2 /H2 O
CO 0:5O2 /CO2
The composition of the afterburner exit gas can be computed
based on mass balance equations. In this study, the combustion
efciency is kept constant at 98% [35].
The performance parameters for analysis of the SOFC-GT hybrid
systems are the SOFC efciency (hel;sofc ), system efciency (hsystem )
and specic work (W _ sp ). The system efciency and specic work
depends on the net power output. They are dened as:
Psofc;AC
hel;sofc
n_ C2 H5 OH LHVC2 H5 OH
Psofc;AC Pgt  PH2 O;pum  PC2 H5 OH;pum  Pblower
hsystem
n_ C2 H5 OH LHVC2 H5 OH Qexternal
All of the equations discussed above were coded and solved in
the Matlab environment. To ensure the reliability of simulation
results, the predicted value of cell performance is validated with
the experimental data of Zhao and Virkar [36], as shown in Fig. 2.
The parameters using in model validation are listed in Table 3. Fig. 2
shows that the predicted value of voltage is in agreement with the
experimental results at various current densities and the R2 for
prediction model is 0.992. Furthermore, to make more condence
in the reliability of model, the predicted results of the average
current density, the outlet composition of species gas and the
suitable of air ratio were veried with data of Kanga et al. [37]. The
operating parameters based on the condition are listed in Table 3
and the results of developed model are shown in Table 4. It is
(13) observed that the prediction of our model agrees well with referred
data, which indicated that the error is between 0 and 3.9%. These
(14) results make more condence in the reliability of simulation for
solid oxide fuel cell model.
Under standard conditions, the ethanol steam reformer oper-
ated at a temperature of 973 K with a steam-to-carbon ratio of 1.5
[28]. Other input parameters are shown in Table 5 [24,26,35]. To
simulate the SOFC system, the fuel and air molar ow rates are
adjusted to the values required for average current density and fuel
utilization, which satises the temperature constraint across the
fuel cell of 100 K. When considering the heat recovered by the SOFC
system, the recuperator effectiveness is assumed to be 0.9 [7]. The
(15) turbine inlet temperature (TIT), turbine outlet temperature (TOT)
and heat exchanger effectiveness are considered to depend on the
design procedure.
In this study, the SOFC systems are designed to generate 500 kW
of power. Two system congurations, a SOFC-GT system with RHE
and one using cathode exhaust gas recirculation, are considered.
(16)
For the 500 kW SOFC-GT hybrid system, the power output from the
gas turbine is limited to 40e200 kW, and a small metallic radial

1.2

Experimental Model
1

0.8
Voltage (V)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Current density (A/cm2)
Fig. 2. Comparison between the model predictions and experimental results of Zhao and Virkar.
748 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755

Table 3 Table 5
Input parameters used in model validation. Operating conditions for the system under nominal condition.

Parameters Zhao and Virkar [36] Kanga et al. [37] Parameter Value

Operating temperature, Tsofc (K) 1073 1023 Pre-reformer

Operating pressure, Psofc (bar) 1 1 Operating temperature, Tr (K) 973 K
Air composition 21% O2, 79% N2 21% O2, 79% N2 Steam to carbon ratio 1.5
Fuel composition 97% H2, 3% H2O 33% CH4, 67% H2O Solid oxide fuel cell
Cell length, L (m) 0.4 0.1 Operating temperature, Tsofc (K) 1073
Cell width, W (m) 0.1 0.1 Air temperature increase across cathode (K) 100
Fuel channel height, hf (mm) 1 1 Average current density (A/cm2) 0.4
Air channel height, ha (mm) 1 1 Air composition 21% O2, 79% N2
Anode thickness, tanode (m m) 1000 500 Fuel utilization 0.675
Cathode thickness, tcathode (m m) 20 50 SOFC pressure loss (%) 2
Electrolyte thickness, telectrolyte (m m) 8 20 dc-ac inverter efciency 94
Fuel utilization e 0.8 Combustor
Operating voltage (V) e 0.6582 Combustor combustion efciency (%) 98
Combustor pressure loss (%) 3
Gas turbine
Turbine isentropic efciency (%) 82
Table 4
Compressor isentropic efciency (%) 78
Validation of the SOFC model.
Generator mechanical efciency (%) 94
Kanga et al. Model Absolute error (%) Compressor pressure ratio (bar) 4
Recuperator
Outlet mole fraction (fuel channel) Recuperator effectiveness (%) 90
Methane 0.0001 0.0001 0 Recuperator pressure loss of cool stream (%) 1.5
Water 0.6772 0.6871 1.46 Recuperator pressure loss of hot stream (%) 2.5
Hydrogen 0.1239 0.1215 1.94 Blower
Carbon monoxide 0.0349 0.0336 3.72 Blower isentropic efciency (%) 70
Carbon dioxide 0.1639 0.1577 3.78 Pump
Outlet mole fraction (Air channel) Pump efciency 0.75
Oxygen 0.1872 0.1885 0.69 Fuel manifold
Nitrogen 0.8128 0.8115 0.16 Fuel composition 100% C2H5OH
SOFC performance parameters Fuel temperature at system inlet (K) 298.15
Air ratio 7.5 7.567 0.89 Air temperature at system inlet (K) 298.15
Average current density (A/cm2) 0.5 0.4988 0.24
Power density (W/cm2) 0.3291 0.3283 0.24

turbine is considered. The inlet temperature for this turbine should
not exceed 1223 K due to the uncooled turbine blades [1]. The
effectiveness and hot gas inlet temperatures for the recuperative
heat exchangers are limited to a maximum of 55% and 1273 K [7].
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Consideration of energy management of both systems under
constrained operating condition
The SOFC-GT hybrid systems with RHE and CGR under nominal
conditions are analyzed based on the design constraints. The aim of
this analysis is to provide insight into energy management for both
systems. For 500 kW hybrid systems, a current density of 0.4 A/cm2
and fuel utilization of 0.675 is considered. The inlet molar ow rate
for air is adjusted to control the air inlet temperature before feeding
into the SOFC using the 100 K temperature differential across the
fuel cell.
To compare the system efciencies, the recuperator effective-
ness in both the SOFC systems is xed at 90%. As shown in Fig. 1, the
SOFC-GT hybrid systems with RHE and CGR have different heat
recovery methods for preheating air. The heat transfer between the
combustor outlet and air from the recuperator is needed to control
the air inlet temperature before feeding into the cell. Thus, a high-
temperature heat exchanger effectiveness is xed at 51.03% in the
SOFC-GT system with RHE, whereas the SOFC hybrid system recir-
culating the cathode exhaust gas requires a recirculation ratio of
0.435.
A fuel processor is the largest energy consumer in the SOFC-GT
hybrid system because the ethanol steam reforming reaction is
strongly endothermic. The operation of the ethanol stream
reforming reaction is suitable at high temperature of 973 K.
Normally, the turbine exhaust gas is recovered heat for the fuel
processor. However, turbine outlet temperature is not high enough
to recover heat for the ethanol reformer and fuel preheater. The
heat management from SOFC downstream is an important on the
efcient utilization of exhaust gas. Moreover, the temperature of
each point is the design constraint of the hybrid system between
SOFC and small turbine, due to the limited capacity of the equip-
ment. Thus, the conguration design in the SOFC-GT hybrid system
is considered. The rst case is the conguration of directly feeding
the exhaust gas from SOFC to the combustor. Another case is the
conguration of using heat from the cathode exhaust gas to supply
heat to the external reformer before feeding the combustor.
The combustor outlet temperature of SOFC-GT system with RHE
in rst case is rather high about 1244.8 K. In the SOFC-GT system
with RHE, the high-temperature heat exchanger added in the sys-
tem to preheat the inlet air to SOFC should not be operated over
1273 K. For second case, the cathode outlet exhaust gas supplies
approximately 97.75 kW of heat to the reformer. The cathode outlet
temperature decreased from 1073 K (node 15) to 1013.5 K (node
16). Consequently, the combustor outlet temperature is 1193.3 K
instead of 1244.8 K in case of not using heat from the cathode
exhaust gas in reformer.
The SOFC-GT hybrid systems with CGR exhibit considerably
increased the combustor outlet temperatures due to the reduced air
ow into the combustor. The combustor outlet temperature is
approximately 1339.1 K when not using this heat in the reformer.
The outlet combustor temperature should not be excessively high
because high combustor temperatures require expensive alloy
materials in a downstream heat exchanger. Furthermore, this pro-
cess reduces the turbine inlet temperature, which is an important
constraint for small turbines. To reduce the turbine inlet temper-
ature under the design constraints, the heat of the cathode exhaust
gas in this hybrid system should be more used by the fuel processor
than for the high-temperature heat exchanger. In this case, the fuel
 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755
Table 6
System performance based on the design point condition.
High-temperature Cathode exhaust gas
heat exchanger (Fig. 1) recirculation (Fig. 2)
Input fuel (LHV) (kW) 879.74 800.22
SOFC power (kW) 388.28 388.27
Net gas turbine power (kW) 111.9 117.39
Blower electrical power (kW) e 5.62
SOFC efciency (%) 43.86 43.70
System efciency (%) 56.85 62.48
Specic work (kJ/kg) 334.70 581.50
GT to SOFC power ratio 0.2882 0.3023
processor requires a total of 180.64 kW with 82.64 kW used to
preheat the fuel before entering the reformer and 98 kW for the
endothermic reaction. The exit temperature of combustor is low-
ered to 1183.8 K. Using heat from the cathode exhaust gas to supply
the reformer reduces not only the external heat required by the
reformer but also the combustor outlet temperature. Thus, the
congurations with using the cathode exhaust gas for fuel pro-
cessor was considered for analysis of the SOFC-GT hybrid systems
with RHE and CGR.
The heat requirements in the ethanol and water vaporizers in a
pressurized system is higher than that in the atmospheric system.
As the boiling temperature increases with operating pressure, the
boiling point of ethanol and water at 4 bar are 390.7 K and 416.78 K,
respectively, and the heat duty for the vaporizers is about 118 kW.
The heat and outlet gas temperatures in the recuperator, which
are still high enough for the ethanol and water vaporizer units, are
264.48 kW and 532.3 K, respectively, for SOFC-GT system with RHE,
and 241.09 kW and 611.08 K, respectively, for SOFC-GT system with
CGR.
The energy management for both systems under identical
conditions indicates that the hybrid system with RHE requires an
external heat supply of approximately 82.35 kW for preheating fuel
before entering the reformer. In contrast, the hybrid system with
CGR does not require additional heat. The system performance for
both systems under nominal conditions is shown in Table 6. It in-
dicates that the SOFC power of both systems is similar while the
turbine power of the hybrid system with CGR is higher than that
with RHE. Even though the recirculation of cathode exhaust gas
results in the reduction of the ow rate of gas turbine inlet, a higher
turbine temperature with the recirculation of cathode exhaust gas
has more impact on the increase of turbine power than the
decrease of inlet turbine gas ow rate. Thus, the hybrid system with
CGR provides a higher system efciency than the hybrid system
with RHE. The SOFC-GT hybrid system with RHE achieves a system
efciency of 56.85%, while the SOFC-GT hybrid system with CGR
achieves a system efciency of 63.48%. Moreover, the specic work
(the fresh compressed air) is higher for the SOFC-GT hybrid system
with CGR than for the other system due to the reduced air supplied
to the system. In this section, the operating conditions for both
systems were identical. However, the effect of the operating pa-
rameters on the efciency may differ for both systems. Thus, the
inuence of the operating parameters on the SOFC efciency and
system performance is studied in the next section.
4.2. Effect of operating pressure on the system efciency
The inuences of the operating pressure on the system perfor-
mance, i.e., system efciency, SOFC electrical efciency, GT to SOFC
power ratio, heat exchanger effectiveness and cathode recirculation
ratio, are shown in Fig. 3aef. Fig. 3a shows the SOFC electrical ef-
ciency increases upon increasing the compressor pressure ratios
749
from 3 to 8 bar. The increase in SOFC efciency with increasing
operating pressure is due to the enhanced cell open circuit voltage
and concentration overpotentials.
Although the SOFC electrical efciency of the SOFC-GT hybrid
system with RHE is only slightly higher than the SOFC-GT hybrid
with CGR, which increases the operating pressure, the system ef-
ciency of the SOFC-GT system with RHE is lower when the pres-
sure is higher, as seen in Fig. 3b. Notably, most of the energy input
fed to the turbine transforms into electricity when the system
operates under high pressures, which reduces the heat from the
turbine exhaust gas that can be used to preheat the air before
feeding the cathode and consequently increases the required
effectiveness for the high-temperature heat exchanger in the
hybrid system (Fig. 3e). The heat exchanger effectiveness in-
crements such that the heat exchange between the combustor
outlet gas and cathode inlet air before entering the cell increases
with the operating pressure, and the turbine inlet temperature
decreases (Fig. 3d), which reduces the turbine performance as seen
from the GT to SOFC power ratio shown in Fig. 3e. This process
decreases the hybrid system efciency when using the high-
temperature heat exchanger.
The system efciency of the SOFC-GT system with CGR is
increasing distinctively upon increasing the pressure from 3 to
5 bar, which contrasts the SOFC-GT system with RHE as shown in
Fig. 3b. Fig. 3d shows the turbine inlet temperature in the SOFC-GT
system with CGR positively correlated to the operating pressure
due to the increased combustor outlet temperature and reduced
the input heat supplied by the reformer unit with increasing
operating pressure. Thus, the turbine performance of the SOFC-GT
system with CGR is improveed (Fig. 3c) due to the turbine inlet
temperature increment with increasing operating pressure. None-
theless, the operating pressure for the SOFC-GT system with CGR
should not be above 6 bar when the fuel utilization of SOFC is 0.675
because the turbine inlet temperature exceeds its constraint for a
small turbine. Moreover, the increased operating pressure slightly
reduces the SOFC electrical efciency in the SOFC-GT system with
CGR relative to the SOFC electrical efciency in the SOFC-GT system
with RHE. To control the air inlet temperature before feeding the
cathode, the cathode exhaust gas recirculation ratio is higher with
increasing pressure, which dilutes the oxygen on the cathode side
and insignicantly decreases the SOFC electrical efciency.
4.3. Effects of SOFC operating parameters
4.3.1. Effect of fuel utilization
The inuence of the fuel utilization is incredibly important for
the heat recovery and system performance in the SOFC-GT hybrid
system, as shown in Fig. 4. The SOFC electrical efciency is shown
(Fig. 4a) in term of the fuel utilization. Increasing the fuel utilization
improved the SOFC electrical efciency in both systems. This
observation can be explained by the increased amount of hydrogen
converted in the fuel cell to produce electricity via the electro-
chemical reaction for higher fuel utilization.
The fuel utilization affects the GT performance and heat recov-
ery in system by lowering the residual fuel used in the combustor
when the SOFC operates with a higher fuel utilization, which re-
duces the energy used in the turbine. Fig. 4c and d shows the tur-
bine inlet temperature and GT to SOFC power ratio decrease with
increasing fuel utilization. The increase in fuel utilization operation
has a greater impact on the turbine performance degradation in the
SOFC-GT system with RHE than that the one using recirculated
cathode exhaust gas; therefore, it also decreases the system ef-
ciency in the SOFC-GT system with RHE despite the increased SOFC
electrical efciency. In contrast, the system efciency for the SOFC-
GT system with CGR increases with increasing fuel utilization
750 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755

thanks to the increased SOFC efciency being greater than the results indicate the heat exchanger effectiveness requirements for
decreased turbine performance as shown in Fig. 4b. the SOFC-GT system with RHE and the cathode exhaust gas recir-
Fig. 4e and f show how fuel utilization affects the heat exchanger culation ratio increase with increasing fuel utilization. This change
effectiveness requirements for the SOFC-GT system with RHE and occurred because the heat recovered from the combustor for pre-
the cathode exhaust gas recirculation ratio required for the cathode heating other units after the SOFC unit that requires energy input
exhaust gas recirculator to control the inlet air temperature. These decreases with higher fuel utilization. Additionally, the SOFC fuel

(a) (b)

48 66
SOFC-GT with RHE
SOFC electrical efficiency (%)

47 64 SOFC-GT with CGR

System efficiency (%)

46 62

45 60

44 58

43 SOFC-GT with RHE 56

SOFC-GT with CGR
42 54
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Pressure (bar) Pressure (bar)

(c) (d)

0.4 1300

0.35 1200
PGT/PSOFC

Constraint condition
0.3 1100
TIT (K)

0.25 1000

0.2 SOFC-GT with RHE

900 SOFC-GT with RHE
SOFC-GT with CGR SOFC-GT with CGR
0.15 800
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Pressure (bar) Pressure (bar)

(e) (f)
Heat exchanger effectiveness (%)

56 0.55
54 Constraint condition
Cathode recirculation ratio

0.5
52
50 0.45
48
46 0.4

44
0.35
42 SOFC-GT with RHE SOFC-GT with CGR
40 0.3
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Pressure (bar) Pressure (bar)

Fig. 3. Effect of operating pressure on the (a) SOFC electrical efciency, (b) system efciency, (c) GT to SOFC power ratio, (d) turbine inlet temperature, (e) heat exchanger
effectiveness and (f) cathode recirculation ratio of the SOFC-GT systems with RHE and CGR.
 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755 751

(a) (b)

49
SOFC electrical efficiency (%)
66
SOFC-GT with RHE SOFC-GT with RHE
48
SOFC-GT with CGR 64 SOFC-GT with CGR
47

System efficiency (%)

46 62

45 60
44
58
43
42 56

41 54
0.625 0.65 0.675 0.7 0.725 0.75 0.775 0.625 0.65 0.675 0.7 0.725 0.75 0.775
Fuel utilization (Uf) Fuel utilization (Uf)

(c) (d)

0.4 1300
SOFC-GT with RHE
0.35 SOFC-GT with CGR
1200 Constraint condition
0.3
PGT/PSOFC

0.25 1100
TIT (K)

0.2
0.15 1000

0.1
900
0.05 SOFC-GT with RHE
SSOFC-GT with CGR
0 800
0.625 0.65 0.675 0.7 0.725 0.75 0.775 0.625 0.65 0.675 0.7 0.725 0.75 0.775
Fuel utilization (Uf) Fuel utilization (Uf)

(e) (f)

70 0.6
Heat exchanger effectiveness (%)

Cathode recirculation ratio

0.55
65
0.5
60 Constraint condition
0.45
55 0.4
0.35
50
0.3
45 SOFC-GT with RHE 0.25 SOFC-GT with CGR
40 0.2
0.625 0.65 0.675 0.7 0.725 0.75 0.775 0.625 0.65 0.675 0.7 0.725 0.75 0.775
Fuel utilization (Uf) Fuel utilization (Uf)

Fig. 4. Effect of fuel utilization on the (a) SOFC electrical efciency, (b) system efciency, (c) GT to SOFC power ratio, (d) turbine inlet temperature, (e) heat exchanger effectiveness
and (f) cathode recirculation ratio of the SOFC-GT systems with RHE and CGR.

utilization in the SOFC-GT system with RHE should be less than 0.7 4.3.2. Effect of current density
for an operating pressure of 4 bar because of the limited capacity of Varying the SOFC-GT hybrid system load was studied by
the high-temperature heat exchanger using current technology. changing the current density. The effect of the current density on
the system performance for a constant fuel utilization is shown in
752 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755

(a) (b)

48 70
SOFC electrical efficiency (%)

47
46 65

System efficiency (%)

45 60
44
43 55
42
41 50
SOFC-GT with RHE
40 SOFC-GT with RHE
SOFC-GT with CGR 45
39 SOFC-GT with CGR
38 40
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Current density (A/cm2) Current density (A/cm2)

(c) (d)

0.4 1300
SOFC-GT with RHE Constraint condition
0.38
SOFC-GT with CGR
0.36 1200
PGT/PSOFC

0.34
0.32 1100
TIT (K)

0.3
0.28 1000
0.26
0.24 900 SOFC-GT with RHE
0.22 SOFC-GT with CGR
0.2 800
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Current density (A/cm2) Current density (A/cm2)

(e) (f)

65 0.48
Heat exchanger effectiveness (%)

60 0.46
Cathode recirculation ratio

55
0.44
50 Constraint condition
45 0.42
40
0.4
35 SOFC-GT with RHE SOFC-GT with CGR

30 0.38
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Current density (A/cm2) Current density (A/cm2)

Fig. 5. Effect of current density on the (a) SOFC electrical efciency, (b) system efciency, (c) GT to SOFC power ratio, (d) turbine inlet temperature, (e) heat exchanger effectiveness
and (f) cathode recirculation ratio of the SOFC-GT systems with RHE and CGR.

Fig. 5. Fig. 5a indicates that the current density affects the SOFC
electrical efciency of both systems. The SOFC electrical efciency
is negatively correlated to the current density. This result indicates
the voltage lost to irreversible SOFC cell resistance increases with
increasing current density, which lowers the SOFC electrical ef-
ciency. Fig. 5b shows the system efciency of both systems de-
creases when the current density increases.
The heat released from the electrochemical reaction increases at
higher current densities, which increases both the amount of air
required to cool the cell and control its temperature and the heat
required to preheat the air. Therefore, the combustor outlet tem-
perature decreases with increasing current density. This trend af-
fects the decrease in turbine inlet temperature (Fig. 5d). The turbine
inlet temperature for the SOFC-GT system with RHE is lower than
 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755 753

(a) (b)
66 0.4
64
0.35
System efficiency (%)

62

PGT/PSOFC
60 0.3
58
56 0.25

54
SOFC-GT with RHE 0.2 SOFC-GT with RHE
52 SOFC-GT with CGR SOFC-GT with CGR
50 0.15
82.5 85 87.5 90 92.5 95 82.5 85 87.5 90 92.5 95
Recuperator effectiveness (%) Recuperator effectiveness (%)

Fig. 6. Effect of recuperator effectiveness on the (a) system efciency and (b) GT to SOFC power ratio of the SOFC-GT systems with RHE and CGR.

for the one using recirculated cathode exhaust gas because the heat
exchanger effectiveness requirements for the former increase
(Fig. 5e) whereas the recirculation ratio of the cathode exhaust air
increases with increasing current density (Fig. 5f).
The turbine performance decreases slightly with increasing
current density in the hybrid system using a recuperative heat
exchanger. However, the turbine performance of the hybrid system
using recirculated cathode exhaust increased due to the increased
air molar ow rate into the turbine as shown in Fig. 5c.
4.4. Effect of turbine design parameters
The impact from turbomachinery efciency on the system per-
formance, namely, the recuperator effectiveness and turbine and
compressor efciencies, are investigated in this section. The turbo-
machinery efciency affects the turbine performance and system
heat recovery. However, it impacts the SOFC electrical efciency less.
Therefore, the inuence of the turbomachinery on the efciency is
only presented as the system efciency and turbine performance.
4.4.1. Effect of recuperator effectiveness
Fig. 6 shows how the recuperator effectiveness affects the sys-
tem performance for both systems. From Fig. 6a, increasing the
recuperator effectiveness increases the system efciency of both
systems but affects the system efciency of the hybrid system using
recuperative heat exchanger more than the system using recircu-
lated cathode exhaust gas. Increase the recuperator effectiveness by
7.5% improved the system efciency of the SOFC-GT system RHE
approximately 2.2%, while the SOFC-GT system with CGR increased
approximately 1.1%. Increasing the recuperator effectiveness allows
the compressed air to better exchange heat with the turbine outlet
exhaust gas. The recuperator air outlet temperature decreases and
reduces the heat exchanger effectiveness required for the hybrid
system using a high-temperature heat exchanger, which increases
the turbine inlet temperature and consequently the turbine per-
formance as shown by the GT to SOFC power ratio in Fig. 6b. In
contrast, the air outlet temperature of recuperator increases in the
SOFC-GT system with CGR, which reduces the turbine inlet tem-
perature because the cathode exhaust gas recirculation ratio de-
creases while the requirement for fresh air increases and the
combustor outlet temperature decreases.
4.4.2. Effect of compressor and turbine efciency
The compressor efciency inuences the system efciency of
both systems as shown in Fig. 7a. The compressor efciency in-
crease of 10% clearly increases the system efciency by 3.445% for
the hybrid system using high-temperature heat exchanger and
2.45% for the SOFC-GT system with CGR. Increasing the compressor
efciency reduces the work used to compress the air and increases
the net output work of the gas turbine as shown in Fig. 7b.
Increasing the compressor efciency improves the system ef-
ciency of the SOFC-GT system with CGR less than for the SOFC-GT
system with RHE because the required air feed to the SOFC-GT
system with RHE is approximately 42.4% higher than for the

(a) (b)
66 0.4
64
0.35
PGT/PSOFC
System efficiency (%)

62
60 0.3
58
56 0.25

54
SOFC-GT with RHE 0.2 SOFC-GT with RHE
52 SOFC-GT with CGR SOFC-GT with CGR
50 0.15
72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86
Compressor isentropic efficiency (%) Compressor isentropic efficiency (%)

Fig. 7. Effect of compressor efciency on the (a) system efciency and (b) GT to SOFC power ratio of the SOFC-GT systems with RHE and CGR.
754 D. Saebea et al. / Energy 127 (2017) 743e755
(a)
66
64
System efficiency (%)
62
60
58
56
54
SOFC-GT with RHE
52 SOFC-GT with CGR
50
76 78.5 81 83.5 86 88.5
Turbine isentropic efficiency (%)
Fig. 8. Effect of turbine isentropic efciency on the (a) system efciency and (b) GT to SOFC power ratio for the SOFC hybrid systems of the SOFC-GT systems with RHE and CGR.
SOFC-GT system with CGR due to the higher work requirements for
the air compressor.
Fig. 8a and b shows how the turbine efciency affects the system
efciency and GT to SOFC power ratio for both systems. The results
indicate the system efciency of both systems increases with
increasing turbine efciency. Increasing the turbine efciency in-
uences the system efciency using recirculated cathode exhaust
gas more than for the hybrid system using a high-temperature heat
exchanger, which is above 1.2% for a 10% turbine efciency increase.
This difference is because the turbine outlet temperature decreases
for both systems with increasing turbine efciency. For the hybrid
system using a recuperative heat exchanger, a lower turbine outlet
temperature reduces the turbine inlet temperature due to the
increased heat exchanger effectiveness; in contrast, decreasing the
turbine outlet temperature increases the turbine inlet temperature
of the hybrid system using recirculated cathode exhaust because
the increased recirculation ratio for the cathode exhaust gas de-
creases the fresh air feed into the system and increases the
combustor outlet temperature.
5. Conclusions
The heat recovery of two pressurized SOFC-GT hybrid systems
was studied in this paper, specically a SOFC-GT system with RHE
and one using recirculated cathode exhaust. In the rst section,
both systems were analyzed and compared based on their nominal
conditions in a constrained SOFC-GT hybrid system. The simulation
results indicate that downstream of the hybrid system using
recirculated cathode exhaust recovered sufcient heat to supply
both the fuel processor and air preheater, while the SOFC-GT sys-
tem with RHE required external heat for the fuel processor, and
consequently, the hybrid system using recirculated cathode
exhaust achieved a higher system efciency than the other system.
Furthermore, this system also exhibited a higher specic work due
to its lower air ow feed requirements.
The effects of varying the pressure, fuel utilization, current
density and turbomachinery efciency on the system performance
were investigated. Increasing the operating pressure and fuel uti-
lization more greatly affected the SOFC electrical efciency of both
systems. However, these parameters affected the system perfor-
mance of both systems oppositely. The system efciency for the
SOFC-GT system with CGR increased whereas that for the SOFC-GT
system with RHE decreased with increasing pressure and fuel uti-
lization. The primary cause of this reduced system efciency in the
SOFC-GT system with RHE was the increased air ow required to
control the cell temperature, increased heat exchanger
(b)
0.4
0.35
PGT/PSOFC
0.3
0.25
0.2 SOFC-GT with RHE
SOFC-GT with CGR
0.15
76 78.5 81 83.5 86 88.5
Turbine isentropic efficiency (%)
effectiveness requirements and reduced turbine inlet temperature
upon increasing these parameters. Increasing the current density
decreased the SOFC electrical efciency and system efciency for
both systems. However, it more greatly impacted the system ef-
ciency of the SOFC-GT system with RHE. Moreover, increasing the
recuperator effectiveness and compressor efciency improves the
system efciency of the SOFC-GT system with RHE signicantly,
whereas the turbine efciency strongly increases the system ef-
ciency in the SOFC-GT system CGR.
Acknowledgements
Support from Chulalongkorn Academic Advancement into Its
2nd Century Project, The Institutional Research Grant (The Thailand
Research Fund) (IRG 5780014) and Chulalongkorn University
(lRES_57_411_21_076) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Nomenclature
mix: mixer
ohm: ohmic loss
Ci : Molar concentration of component i [mol m3] pum: pump
EOCV : Open-circuit voltage [V] sofc: solid oxide fuel cell
Eact : Activation energy for reforming reaction [kJ mol1] SR: steam reforming reaction
F: Faraday constant [C mol1] t: turbine
_ Enthalpy [kJ mol1]
h: TPB: three-phase boundary
ha : Air channel height [m] vap: vaporizer
hf : Fuel channel height [m] WGS: water gas shift reaction