Thermodynamic Performance Study of the SOFC-GT-RC System Fueled by LNG With Zero-CO₂ Emission

Distributed energy technology is an important developing direction of the future energy technology. This paper puts forward a distributed energy system named SOFC-GT-RC with LNG as fuel and recovering carbon dioxide. In the system, the cold energy of LNG can not only cool the compressor inlet air to reduce consumption of compressor work, but also to supply cold energy and to get zero-CO₂ and other emissions. Based on mathematical model of each part, the thermodynamic calculation model of the whole system is built by FORTRAN, which is embedded in ASPEN PLUS. The results of calculation indicate the thermal efficiency and total power efficiency are 74.5% and 56.7% while the exergy efficiency is 61.8%. In addition, some operating parameters such as fuel utilization factor and fuel flow rate are selected. Based on these operating parameters, the new system thermodynamic performance is studied. The results point that this SOFC-GT-RC system fueled by LNG increases the total power, decreases waste of cold energy and the pollution of the environment, which would be an effective utilization style of energy in China’s LNG satellite stations.