Environmental and Efficiency Analysis of Simulated Application of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Co-Generation System in a Dormitory Building

Abstract

The problem of air pollution in Korea has become progressively more serious in recent years. Since electricity is advertised as clean energy, some newly developed buildings in Korea are using only electricity for all energy needs. In this research, the annual amount of air pollution attributable to energy under the traditional method in a dormitory building, which is supplying both natural gas and electricity to the building, was compared with the annual amount of air pollution attributable to supplying only electricity. The results showed that the building using only electricity emits much more air pollution than the building using electricity and natural gas together. Under the traditional method of energy supply, a residential solid oxide fuel cell cogeneration system (SOFC–CGS) for minimizing environmental pollution of the building was simulated. Furthermore, as a high load factor could lead to high efficiency of the SOFC–CGS, sharing of the SOFC–CGS by multi-households could increase its efficiency. Finally, the environmental pollution from using one system in one household was compared with that from sharing one system by multi-households. The results showed that the environmental pollution from sharing the system was relatively higher but still similar to that when using one system in one household.