Development of an integrated gasifier–solid oxide fuel cell test system: A detailed system study

A detailed system study on an integrated gasifier–SOFC test system which is being constructed for combined heat and power (CHP) application is presented. The performance of the system is evaluated using thermodynamic calculations. The system includes a fixed bed gasifier and a 5 kW SOFC CHP system. Two kinds of gas cleaning systems, a combined high and low temperature gas cleaning system and a high temperature gas cleaning system, are considered to connect the gasifier and the SOFC system. A complete model of the gasifier–SOFC system with these two gas cleaning systems is built and evaluated in terms of energy and exergy efficiencies. A sensitivity study is carried out to check system responses to different working parameters. The results of this work show that the electrical efficiencies of the gasifier–SOFC CHP systems with different gas cleaning systems are almost the same whereas the gasifier–SOFC CHP systems with the high temperature gas cleaning system offers higher heat efficiency for both energy and exergy.