Abstract:
Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology dominates competing fuel cell technologies because of high-efficiency electric energy generation from natural gas, both with simple fuel cell plants and with integrated cogeneration systems such as Rankine cycle. In this thesis, tubular SOFC stack with methane gas feeding, internal reforming of hydrocarbons and internal air preheating is proposed. Operating tubular SOFC stack with Rankine cycle is an interesting issue. To achieve this goal, 'optimal7 operating conditions for enhanced unit performance need to be identified. Thus, Genetic algorithm (GA) technique with Min - Max method employed to perform a multi-objective optimization on the unit performance. Simultaneous maximization of efficiency and minimization of environmental impact are considered as the two objective functions. Pareto-optimal sets of operating conditions are successfully obtained by GA with Min - Max method for different process conditions. The results are used in the operation in order to achieve effective operation of tubular SOFC stack power generation. The fix current density model gives the optimal solution 75.5175 percent efficiency and 0.1635 1 g/s kW environmental impact score with 221.28 kW. The fix temperature outlet presents 50.4065 percent system efficiency, 0.31152 g/s kW environmental impact score with 38.222 kW.