Advanced Energy Technologies
Sadegh Safari; Hassan Ali Ozgoli
Abstract
In this paper, an electrochemical model was developed to investigate the performance analysis of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). The curves of voltage, power, efficiency, and the generated heat of cell have been analyzed to accomplish a set of optimal operating conditions. Further, a sensitivity analysis ...
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In this paper, an electrochemical model was developed to investigate the performance analysis of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). The curves of voltage, power, efficiency, and the generated heat of cell have been analyzed to accomplish a set of optimal operating conditions. Further, a sensitivity analysis of major parameters that have a remarkable impact on the economy of the SOFC and its residential applications has been conducted. The results illustrate that the current density and cell performance temperature have vital effects on the system efficiency, output power and heat generation of cell of the SOFC. The best system efficiency is approached up to 53.34 % while implementing combined heat and power generation might be further improved up to 86 %. The economic evaluation results indicate that parameters such as overall efficiency, natural gas price and additional produced electricity that has prone to be sold to the national power grid, have a significant impact on the SOFC economy. The results indicate the strong reduction in the purchasing cost of the SOFC, i.e. not more than $2500, and improving the electrical efficiency of SOFC, i.e. not less than 42 %, can be the breakeven points of investment on such systems in residential applications. Also, it is found that the target of this SOFC cogeneration system for residential applications in Iran is relying on considerable technological enhancement of the SOFC, as well as life cycle improvement; improvement in governmental policies; and profound development in infrastructures to mitigate legal constraints.
Sajjad Golshannavaz; Daryoosh Nazarpour
Abstract
Recently, along with the depletion of fossil fuels and growing electrical requirements, more attention has been paid on utilizing Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). The Chichest tourism complex is located 20 km far from Orumieh, Iran which has been supplied through the main distribution grid connection. ...
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Recently, along with the depletion of fossil fuels and growing electrical requirements, more attention has been paid on utilizing Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). The Chichest tourism complex is located 20 km far from Orumieh, Iran which has been supplied through the main distribution grid connection. But, recently the trend is to expand the share of RESs in supplying microgrids demand. Hence, this study reports the optimum investment planning for electrical expansion of grid-connected Chichest tourism complex including diesel/wind/PV/battery technologies. For the optimal planning of microgrid, an efficient simply-computational two-stage procedure is proposed. In the first stage, all of the feasible system configurations are determined using NREL’s HOMER software which is a well-known and well-established optimal modeling environment. Subsequently, in the second stage based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and simple additive weighting (SAW) method, the best configurations for hybrid system are determined through the Expert Choice software considering economical and environmental criteria. With the aim of providing a comprehensive decision-making capability, a sensitivity analysis is performed considering relative importance of criteria. Simulation results demonstrate that for Chichest coast, the best configuration is grid/diesel/wind hybrid system as it shows a uniform behavior for different cases.
