A comparative performance analysis of a solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine combined cycles with carbon capture technologies

This study presents a performance prediction of triple combined cycles that use a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and a gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) with carbon capture technologies. Post- and oxy-combustion capture technologies were comparatively analyzed. The component design parameters of a commercial F-class gas turbine and SOFC were used. Minimizing the turbine inlet temperature (i.e., no extra fuel supplied to the combustor) resulted in higher net cycle efficiency. With post-combustion capture, the net cycle efficiency reached approximately 70 % when no fuel was supplied to the combustor, but the maximum CO2 capture rate was limited to 80 %. When a dual combined cycle was adopted, the CO2 capture rate increased to 91 %, while the net efficiency was approximately 69 %. With oxy-combustion capture, the optimum pressure ratio was higher than in the normal triple combined cycle, and the net cycle efficiency was lower than that of the post-combustion cycle. However, there was a critical advantage of a larger power output with nearly complete carbon capture. The impact of the location of the oxygen supply was examined in the oxy-combustion cycle with extra fuel supplied to the combustor, and supplying all the fuel to the SOFC improved the cycle performance.