Increasing the production capacity of the chp by introducing fuel cells

Abstract

RELEVANCE. Improving the efficiency of the plant with an increase in operating capacity is one of the priority tasks of the development of power plants. One of the solutions to this issue is the introduction of fuel cells as the main or additional source of power and heat. The development of a high-quality scheme for the introduction of fuel cells into thermal power plants will increase their production capacity with the possibility of further reducing the carbon footprint by reducing the consumption of natural gas.THE PURPOSE. To develop thermal power plant schemes in combination with fuel cells to increase the thermal efficiency of the thermal power plant. To consider the types of fuel cells and the principle of their operation and to analyze their effectiveness with justification of the choice of a specific type for further calculations. To study the methods and principles of hydrogen extraction with the choice of the optimal solution directly within the framework of this work. Perform a technical and economic analysis of the introduction of fuel cells to the station.METHODS. When solving this problem, we used a method based on the law of conservation of energy under stationary operating conditions of the circuits was used. The chosen calculation method was implemented using MatLab, DvigWT and Microsoft Excel software.RESULTS. This article presents three types of thermal power plant schemes in a layout with fuel cells and an indication of their specific advantages and disadvantages. The analysis of methods of hydrogen extraction with the choice of one of them by performing an estimate of the cost of hydrogen production is carried out. A technical and economic analysis of the introduction of fuel cells at the plant has been carried out, taking into account the cost of hydrogen production. The carbon footprint from the introduction of fuel cells at the station has been calculated.CONCLUSION. Using fuel cells at the CHP increases the production efficiency of electricity generation by more than 20%, and the power of the power generation unit increases by more than 30 MW. Calculations have shown that the use of fuel cells leads to a significant increase in production capacity, but it is necessary to study in more detail the methodology for calculating the fuel cells themselves and the ways of hydrogen production.