Proposing Strategies for Efficiency Improvement by Using a Residential Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Co-Generation System in a Small-Scale Apartment Building

Abstract

The high levels of energy consumption commonly seen today have severe consequences. For example, energy consumption in buildings traditionally takes the form of electricity generated from fossil fuels, which causes serious air pollution. Hence, the efficient application of clean energy systems in buildings is crucial. An increasing number of small-scale apartment buildings, such as single-room apartments and dormitories, have emerged as modern culture, and societal trends have led to a greater number of people living on their own. In this study, two strategies were proposed to improve the efficiency of solid oxide fuel cell co-generation systems (SOFC–CGSs) in small-scale apartments. A small-scale apartment building in Busan, Korea, was selected as the research object to verify the effect of the proposed strategies. One strategy was sharing a single SOFC–CGS among multiple households, and the other was integrating an SOFC–CGS with a photovoltaic (PV) system. The efficiency of the SOFC–CGS is expected to improve under these two operational strategies. In addition, the two proposed operational strategies were combined to improve the efficiency of the SOFC–CGS. To verify the proposed strategies, various simulations were conducted in this study. The simulation results indicate that each of the proposed strategies can improve the efficiency of the SOFC–CGS and save energy to varying degrees.