Performance assessment of a novel biomass-based solid oxide fuel cell power generation cycle; Economic analysis and optimization

Abstract

In the present work, a novel combined system based on the biomass-based solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine system combined with the organic flash cycle is regarded for power generation aim. The main objective of this work is to investigate the feasibility of the proposed system from the economic and environmental viewpoints. The optimum performance of all optimization scenarios is found by applying the multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm and using the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. Regarding the obtained results, for fuel cost of 6$/GJ and electricity price of 0.10$/kWh, the total net present value at the end of plant lifetime is 9.8×105$ and the payback period is 4.25 years, which means that the plant is feasible for construction from the economic perspective. Also, the simulation results indicate that the proposed hybrid system can yield to the energy and exergy efficiencies of 49.37% and 42.50%, respectively. Also, the net output electrical power and is obtained 425.39kW. Moreover, the final optimum solution selected by the decision-making method is obtained by ηII=47.12%, LTE=23.24t/MWh, and cp,tot=5.50$/GJ.