Integration of wind turbine with biomass-fueled SOFC to provide hydrogen-rich fuel: Economic and CO2 emission reduction assessment

• Published in: Process safety and environmental protection 2023-02, Vol.170, p.946-959
• Main Authors: Hai, Tao, Mansir, Ibrahim B., yakoop, Asmaa khudhair, Mulki, Hasan, Anqi, Ali E., Deifalla, Ahmed, Chen, Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomass; Hydrogen; Solid oxide fuel cell; Tri-objective economic optimization; Wind turbine
• ISSN: 0957-5820; 1744-3598
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psep.2022.12.049

Addressing the energy crisis and global warming issues would entail urgent development of efficient and environmentally-benign power generation systems to mitigate the future clean energy policies. The biomass-driven SOFC systems are considered in this regard as pioneer technologies to supply clean power, particularly for decentralized applications. However, enough biomass availability and supply is a main challenge to run these systems. In current research to reduce biomass consumption, the biomass-driven SOFC is hybridized with wind turbines to produce pure hydrogen via a PEM electrolyzer. Produced hydrogen is added to the anode of SOFC to enrich the hydrogen content of the synthesis gas fuel. Feasibility assessment of proposed hybrid SOFC/wind turbine structure is examined considering first and second laws. Then, comprehensive economic and environmental appraisals are considered to inspect trade-offs between increased costs (associated with wind turbine and electrolyzer) and increased power as well as decreased CO2 emission. Finally to determine the optimal conditions for proposed system operation, triple-objective optimization via genetic algorithm is implemented. Obtained results have revealed exergy efficiency enhancement by 7.3% and CO2 emission reduction by 13.0 %, via incorporation of wind turbine. These technical and environmental performance enhancements are achieved at the expense of around 6.4 % increase in unit electricity cost, due to the increment of capital expenditures associated with the wind turbine and water electrolyzer. From parametric analysis, it is found that, the proposed framework yields lower electricity price and CO2 emission under higher cell temperatures and lower fuel utilization factors. [Display omitted] •Biomass fueled SOFC is integrated with wind turbine to provide H2-rich fuel for SOFC.•Performance of newly proposed structure is compared with that of conventional system.•Triple-objective optimization is conducted respect to CO2 emission, efficiency, and cost.•Hydrogen injection increases exergy efficiency and decreases the CO2 emission.