Abstract
A hydrogen co-production solid oxide fuel cell power generation system that uses methane (natural gas) as fuel and can supply both electrical power and hydrogen is newly proposed. It is made clear that the system with the electrical power generation efficiency of over 35% and the overall system efficiency of over 70% can be realized by optimally selecting the gas flow configuration and the operating conditions. The decrease in the electrical power generation efficiency by the reduction of the air outlet temperature is compensated by the increase in the hydrogen production efficiency. This indicates that the operating mode changes depending upon the air outlet temperature without deteriorating the total system performance. The system performance under the part-load operation is also investigated, and it is made clear that the sufficiently high performance operation can be expected even under the part-load condition.
