Design and control of energy integrated SOFC systems for in situ hydrogen production and power generation

This paper studies the design and operation of energy integrated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems for in situ hydrogen production and power generation. Two configurations are considered: one where the hot effluent stream from the fuel cell is used directly to provide heat to the endothermic reforming reaction, and another where the hot effluent streams are mixed and combusted in a catalytic burner before the energy integration. A comparative evaluation of the two configurations is presented in terms of their design, open-loop dynamics and their operation under linear multi-loop controllers.