integration of solid oxide fuel cells and ... - Ea Energianalyse

1.6. Problem delimitation
1.6 Problem delimitation
Topsoe Fuel Cell (TOFC) manufactures solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks
integrated with other high temperature components in a PowerCore TM .
TOFC develops three different products with focus on three market
segments: Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), Distributed Generation (DG)
and micro Combined Heat and Power (µCHP). The latter two generates
heat (hot water) besides electricity.
The waste heat from a SOFC has a relative high temperature which
might be an opportunity for producing heat driven cooling instead of (or
in combination with) hot water.
TOFC wants to know whether it is technically feasible to integrate
SOFC and heat driven cooling and which market segments that are
suited for such a product - is there a match between generation and
demand for electricity, cooling and heat
The absorption cycle (ABS) with water-lithium bromide solution is
chosen as the heat driven cooling technology, because it seems to have
most advantages for this purpose. As described in previous section it
has one of the best performances and many possibilities to enhance it,
and it is more simple than the ABS cycle with ammonia-water. Although
there is the drawback that the application can only operate above zero
degree Celsius to avoid water freezing.
To determine whether integration of SOFC and ABS is feasible and
whether there is a match between electric power, cooling and heating
demands, it is necessary to make a thermodynamic model, which can
simulate the interplay of such components. Practical experiments could
be an alternative approach but it is both a very expensive and time
consuming task, which is less feasible for a master thesis like this.
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