TY - JOUR

T1 - System Simulation and Analysis of an LNG-Fueled SOFC System Using Additively Manufactured High Temperature Heat Exchangers

AU - Hollmann, Jan

AU - Fuchs, Marco

AU - Spieker, Carsten

AU - Gardemann, Ulrich

AU - Steffen, Michael

AU - Luo, Xing

AU - Kabelac, Stephan

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Germany (BMVI, funding code 03B10605H) and the coordination of the MultiSchIBZ project by the National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NOW GmbH), Germany. Funding Information: The SchIBZ projects, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), have been working on the development of diesel and LNG based SOFC systems. Initially, research was focused on a diesel based SOFC demonstrator to prove the feasibility of a low-emission and efficient substitution of conventional auxiliary engines [19]. The demonstrator was realized as a container setup with a rated power of 50 kWel. Parallel to experimental system testing, a comprehensive thermodynamic system analysis was carried out to identify suitable operating conditions [20,21]. The experimental phase demonstrated the general proof of concept of the chosen system configuration. The follow-up project MultiSchIBZ has been concerned with process optimizations by means of novel high temperature heat exchanger concepts to increase the system compactness and power density. Additionally, scale-up measures to establish a container module with a rated power of 300 kWel as well as an additional pathway of LNG as a second fuel were investigated. The necessity of battery storage systems was analyzed to cope for the SOFC ramp rates [22] and a techno-economic analysis was carried out to outline the economic efficiency of such SOFC systems in contrast to conventional auxiliary engines [23].

PY - 2022/2/1

Y1 - 2022/2/1

N2 - A laboratory-scale solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a fuel is designed to be used as an energy converter on seagoing vessels (MultiSchIBZ project). The presented system design phase is supported by thermodynamic system simulation. As heat integration plays a crucial role with regard to fuel recirculation and endothermic pre-reforming, the heat exchanger and pre-reforming component models need to exhibit a high degree of accuracy throughout the entire operating range. Compact additively manufactured tube-bundle and plate-fin heat exchangers are designed to achieve high heat exchange efficiencies at low pressure losses. Their heat transfer correlations are derived from experimental component tests under operating conditions. A simulation study utilizing these heat exchanger characteristics is carried out for four configuration variants of pre-reforming and heat integration. Their system behaviour is analyzed with regard to the degree of pre-reforming and the outlet temperature of the fuel processing module. The combination of allothermal pre-reforming with additively manufactured plate-fin heat exchangers exhibits the best heat integration performance at nominal full load and yields a partial load capability to up to 60% electrical load at net electrical efficiencies of 58 to 60% (LHV).

AB - A laboratory-scale solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a fuel is designed to be used as an energy converter on seagoing vessels (MultiSchIBZ project). The presented system design phase is supported by thermodynamic system simulation. As heat integration plays a crucial role with regard to fuel recirculation and endothermic pre-reforming, the heat exchanger and pre-reforming component models need to exhibit a high degree of accuracy throughout the entire operating range. Compact additively manufactured tube-bundle and plate-fin heat exchangers are designed to achieve high heat exchange efficiencies at low pressure losses. Their heat transfer correlations are derived from experimental component tests under operating conditions. A simulation study utilizing these heat exchanger characteristics is carried out for four configuration variants of pre-reforming and heat integration. Their system behaviour is analyzed with regard to the degree of pre-reforming and the outlet temperature of the fuel processing module. The combination of allothermal pre-reforming with additively manufactured plate-fin heat exchangers exhibits the best heat integration performance at nominal full load and yields a partial load capability to up to 60% electrical load at net electrical efficiencies of 58 to 60% (LHV).

KW - Additively manufactured heat exchangers

KW - Anode off-gas recirculation

KW - Fuel cell system design

KW - Maritime application

KW - Solid oxide fuel cell

KW - Steam reforming

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123536464&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/en15030941

DO - 10.3390/en15030941

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85123536464

VL - 15

JO - ENERGIES

JF - ENERGIES

SN - 1996-1073

IS - 3

M1 - 941

ER -