Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINE RESEARCH
Volume 23, Issue 5, Pages 830-845Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/14680874211016987
Keywords
Anode off-gas; syngas; spark ignition combustion; solid oxide fuel cell-internal combustion engine; variable compression ratio engine testing; zero dimensional modeling; hybrid power generation
Funding
- United States Department of Energy (ARPA-E INTEGRATE) project [DE-AR0000959]
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Solid oxide fuel cell - internal combustion engine (SOFC-ICE) hybrid systems offer a reliable and efficient solution for electricity generation, achieving up to 70% theoretical electric power conversion efficiency by utilizing SOFC off-gas as fuel for ICE. Experimental investigations show that the anode off-gas can be successfully oxidized using spark ignition combustion mode, with potential fuel conversion efficiency expected to increase in more modern engine architectures.
Solid oxide fuel cell - internal combustion engine (SOFC-ICE) hybrid systems are an attractive solution for electricity generation. The system can achieve up to 70% theoretical electric power conversion efficiency through energy cascading enabled by utilizing the anode off-gas from the SOFC as the fuel source for the ICE. Experimental investigations were conducted with a single cylinder Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine by altering fuel-air equivalence ratio (phi), and compression ratio (CR) to study the engine load, combustion characteristics, and emissions levels of dry SOFC anode off-gas consisting of 33.9% H-2, 15.6% CO, and 50.5% CO2. The combustion efficiency of the anode off-gas was directly evaluated by measuring the engine-out CO emissions. The highest net-indicated fuel conversion efficiency of 31.3% occurred at phi = 0.90 and CR = 13:1. These results demonstrate that the anode off-gas can be successfully oxidized using a spark ignition combustion mode. The fuel conversion efficiency of the anode tail gas is expected to further increase in a more modern engine architecture that can achieve increased burn rates in comparison to the CFR engine. NOx emissions from the combustion of anode off-gas were minimal as the cylinder peak temperatures never exceeded 1800 K. This experimental study ultimately demonstrates the viability of an ICE to operate using an anode off-gas, thus creating a complementary role for an ICE to be paired with a SOFC in a hybrid power generation plant.
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