Thermodynamic Analysis of a Reconfigured 500-MWe Supercritical Thermal Power Plant by Integrating Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and a Gas Turbine

In the present study, a detailed thermodynamic analysis is performed on an integrated gasification fuel cell-combined cycle (IGFC-CC), which is a reconfigured standalone 500-MWe supercritical thermal power plant. The plant is powered by the syngas obtained through gasification of Indian high ash coal. The modeling and analysis of the plants are done using a commercially available Fortran-based software program called ‘CYCLE-TEMPO.’ IGFC-CC is configured with the recirculation of anode and cathode effluents of SOFC to its respective electrode inlets. The 1st and 2nd law analysis has shown the standalone plant’s energy and exergy efficiencies to be 38.22% and 33.83%. These efficiencies are 52.83% and 46.76%, when evaluated for the proposed plant considering RR value as 0.9 of anode effluent and 20% excess air being supplied to the combustor downstream of SOFC. The exergy analysis of the standalone and proposed reconfigured plant indicates major irreversibilities are associated with the furnace and gasifier, respectively, i.e., around 33.2% and 21.6%. A comparative study between the standalone and proposed IGFC-CC plant has shown a reduction in the specific fuel consumption of the proposed plant from 0.32 to 0.54 kg/kWh of the standalone plant. The specific CO₂ emission from IGFC-CC is noticed to be 0.46 kg/kWh, which is 40.4% less than emission from standalone plant apart from enhancement in the energy as well as exergy efficiencies. The economic analysis of the proposed reconfigured plant has yielded the levelized cost of electricity at Rs. 5.93/kWh.