Effendi I  Liu JJ

Vol. 26,  No. 2, pp. 96-101, Jun.  2020
10.7464/ksct.2020.26.2.96

Biogas trigeneration Macroalgae Process design solid oxide fuel cells

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In this paper, the commercial feasibility of trigeneration, producing heat, power, and hydrogen (CHHP) and using biogas derived from macroalgae (i.e., seaweed biomass feedstock), are investigated. For this purpose, a commercial scale trigeneration process, consisting of three MW solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), gas turbine, and organic Rankine cycle, is designed conceptually and simulated using Aspen plus, a commercial process simulator. To produce hydrogen, a solid oxide fuel cell system is re-designed by the removal of after-burner and the addition of a water-gas shift reactor. The cost of each unit operation equipment in the process is estimated through the calculated heat and mass balances from simulation, with the techno-economic analysis following through. The designed CHHP process produces 2.3 MW of net power and 50 kg hr-1 of hydrogen with an efficiency of 37% using 2 ton hr-1 of biogas from 3.47 ton hr-1 (dry basis) of brown algae as feedstock. Based on these results, a realistic scenario is evaluated economically and the breakeven electricity selling price (BESP) is calculated. The calculated BESP is ￠10.45 kWh-1, which is comparable to or better than the conventional power generation. This means that the CHHP process based on SOFC can be a viable alternative when the technical targets on SOFC are reached.