Techno-economic assessment of high efficient energy production (SOFC-GT) for residential application from natural gas

Fuel cells, as alternatives for conventional energy conversion systems, have the prospect for exploiting fossil fuels (especially natural gas) more benignly and efficiently. High temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) with the ability of direct natural gas reforming is promised to be the most efficient device for a direct conversion of the fuel chemical energy into the electricity. Its efficiency can be further increased up to 70% when the SOFC is coupled with a Gas Turbine (GT) cycle. To provide the required energy for the household application, a kW range SOFC-GT (11–42.9 kWe) combined cycle is proposed in this article. Complete thermodynamic simulation of a SOFC-GT power system is done. Then a four floor building is introduced for energy consumption section. Each floor has the 100 m2 flat. After calculating the required electrical and thermal load of building, the size of proposed system is determined and the economic evaluation is considered. Four different climatic areas of Iran are selected for this study. The results show that among the selected cities, SOFC-GT is more economic in the hot and wet climate area (Ahvaz). The prime cost of electrical energy per kWh and the period of return is 0.0208 US$ and 8.3494 years respectively in Ahvaz.