Combined Heat and Power Systems Based on an Externally Integrated Solid Oxide Fuel Cell – Gas Turbine Hybrid System: The Case of a Hospital Under French Legislation

High temperature Fuel Cells are an attractive technology to generate electricity at high efficiencies. Advantages over traditional heat engine systems include lower irreversibilities, stack modularity and lower maintenance requirements. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells can be coupled with Gas Turbines to further increase cycle performance. In the present study the evaluation of an Externally Integrated Solid Oxide Fuel CellGas Turbine (EISOFCGT) system is presented. The cycle has been designed to meet the requirements of a hospital with a peak thermal demand of 12 MW and electrical of 4.75 MW. Various configurations have been analyzed, with particular emphasis on the effects of operating temperature and air flow-rate in order to identify the optimum configuration. Finally a comparison has been made to a simple CHP plant in order to evaluate the system economics, taking into account the French legislation.