A new electrical power and cooling cogeneration cycle based on a solid oxide fuel cell

A new solid oxide fuel cell based electrical power and cooling cogeneration cycle is proposed and analyzed. The proposed system is the combination of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)-gas turbine for electrical power production and a generator-absorber-heat exchange (GAX) absorption refrigeration cycle for producing cooling. The system is modeled by means of solving mass and energy balance equations for each system component and electrochemical equations for the SOFC, using the engineering equations solver (EES) software. The obtained results show that the thermal efficiency of the combined system is 78.72% higher than that of the stand-alone SOFC-gas turbine system. It is also concluded that an increase in the current density leads to an increase in the net electrical output power, produced cooling and inlet fuel flow rate so that the thermal efficiency increases. However, an increase in the fuel cell operating temperature causes the thermal efficiency first to decrease and then increase.