Multi-objective design and operation of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) Triple Combined-cycle Power Generation systems: Integrating energy efficiency and operational safety

Mahdi Sharifzadeh, Mojtaba Meghdari and Davood Rashtchian

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 185, issue P1, 345-361

Abstract: Energy efficiency is one of the main pathways for energy security and environmental protection. In fact, the International Energy Agency asserts that without energy efficiency, 70% of targeted emission reductions are not achievable. Despite this clarity, enhancing the energy efficiency introduce significant challenge toward process operation. The reason is that the methods applied for energy-saving pose the process operation at the intersection of safety constraints. The present research aims at uncovering the trade-off between safe operation and energy efficiency; an optimization framework is developed that ensures process safety and simultaneously optimizes energy-efficiency, quantified in economic terms. The developed optimization framework is demonstrated for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power generation system. The significance of this industrial application is that SOFC power plants apply a highly degree of process integration resulting in very narrow operating windows. However, they are subject to significant uncertainties in power demand. The results demonstrate a strong trade-off between the competing objectives. It was observed that highly energy-efficient designs feature a very narrow operating window and limited flexibility. For instance, expanding the safe operating window by 100% will incur almost 47% more annualized costs. Establishing such a trade-off is essential for realizing energy-saving.

Keywords: Integrated process design and control; Safe process operation; Multi-objective optimization under uncertainty; SOFC Triple Combined-cycle Power Generation Systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:185:y:2017:i:p1:p:345-361

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.11.010

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