The influence of operating temperature on the efficiency of a combined heat and power fuel cell plant

It is generally accepted that the ideal operating temperature of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) is 650 °C. Nevertheless, when waste heat utilization in the form of an expander and steam production cycle is introduced in the system, another temperature level might prove more productive. This article is a first attempt to the optimization of MCFC operating temperatures of a MCFC system by presenting a case study in which the efficiency of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant is analyzed. The fuel cell plant under investigation is designed around a 250 kW-class MCFC fuelled by natural gas, which is externally reformed by a heat exchange reformer (HER). The operating temperature of the MCFC is varied over a temperature range between 600 and 700 °C while keeping the rest of the system the same as far as possible. Changes in energetic efficiency are given and the causes of these changes are further analyzed. Furthermore, the exergetic efficiencies of the system and the distribution of exergy losses in the system are given. Flowsheet calculations show that there is little dependency on the temperature in the first order. Both the net electrical performance and the overall exergetic performance show a maximum at approximately 675 °C, with an electrical efficiency of 51.9% (LHV), and an exergy efficiency of 58.7%. The overall thermal efficiency of this CHP plant increases from 87.1% at 600 °C to 88.9% at 700 °C. Overall, the change in performance is small in this typical range of MCFC operating temperature.