149

A comparison between conventional recuperative gas

turbine and hybrid solid oxide fuel cell –gas turbine
systems with direct/indirect integration
D Sánchez1*, R Chacartegui1, T Sánchez1, J Martı́nez2, and F Rosa3
1
Universidad de Sevilla, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Sevilla, Camino de los descubrimientos s/n, Sevilla,
Spain
2
AICIA, Camino de los descubrimientos s/n, Sevilla, Spain
3
Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aerospacial INTA, Carretera San Juan del Puerto – Matalascañas, Mazagón, Spain

The manuscript was received on 7 May 2007 and was accepted after revision for publication on 23 November 2007.

DOI: 10.1243/09576509JPE472

Abstract: Conventional recuperative micro gas turbines have a 30 per cent low heating value
(LHV) maximum efficiency at full load. Therefore, if they are to be used in a potential distributed
energy scenario, solutions must be developed that increase efficiency. An innovative gas
turbine-based technology is the fuel cell – gas turbine hybrid system. This work is aimed at
studying how the basic performance of a conventional Brayton cycle changes when heat
addition is done at a fuel cell. Two layouts are considered: a direct system where the compressor
feeds the fuel cell directly and an indirect system where only heat is transferred between
subsystems.
Direct and indirect systems have been studied at full and part load, concluding that the
efficiency versus pressure ratio curves of hybrid systems change substantially with respect to
a traditional gas turbine; part-load efficiency hardly decreases.
Maximum efficiency of hybrid systems doubles the efficiency of state of the art micro gas tur-
bine and remains high at part load. Furthermore, the benefit of a certain increase in tempera-
ture is higher for hybrid systems than for conventional engines.
Finally, a simple economic analysis shows that the total installation and operation/mainten-
ance costs of hybrid systems make them competitive against conventional gas turbines.

Keywords: fuel cell, gas turbine, hybrid system

1 INTRODUCTION The reason for this poor performance is found in

Small scale gas turbines have usually lacked efficiency
either at full or part load, this being a major disadvan-
tage when compared with piston engines or other
power devices. Using a recuperative gas turbine can
counteract this fact partially, increasing rated effi-
ciency to over 25 per cent and approaching the mile-
stone 30 per cent. However, in any cases, running at
part load significantly reduces these figures and
means a penalty over the performance of the system.
*Corresponding author: Thermal Power Group, Universidad de
Sevilla, Grupo de Motores Térmicos, Escuela Técnica Superior de
Ingenieros, Camino de los descubrimientos s/n, Sevilla 41092,
Spain. email: davidsanchez@esi.us.es
a very low turbine inlet temperature [1]. Low power
is coupled to low air mass flow and, hence, to
radial turbomachinery which cannot be cooled.
Current materials can withstand temperatures of up
to 1000 8C for continuous operation and, occasionally,
rise to 1100 8C for a temporary peak load demand.
After years of focusing all efforts in developing new
materials capable of withstanding temperatures over
1000 8C, a new interest for innovative cycles has
recently grown up parallel to the increasing notoriety
of fuel cells in the power sector. In a similar way to gas
and steam combined cycles in the industrial power
generation market, where the combination of gas
and steam turbines can lead to efficiencies over
50 per cent low heating value (LHV), hybrid cycles

JPE472 # IMechE 2008 Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
150 D Sánchez, R Chacartegui, T Sánchez, J Martı́nez, and F Rosa
composed of high temperature fuel cells and micro-
gas turbines are being considered for distributed
power applications. Recent analyses of this kind of
hybrid systems report efficiencies over 60 per cent
LHV [2].
A lot of research in the analysis of fuel cell – gas tur-
bine hybrid systems has been done in recent years,
covering different types of fuel cells and a number
of integration schemes, and conclusions have been
drawn about the capabilities of this sort of devices.
However, although many different system layouts
have been presented in these works, most studies
concentrate in a particular integration sketch, usually
neglecting other layouts, and have developed a
full set of characteristics curves which describe the
performance of the system under different working
conditions, either at full or part load.
The present work covers the fundamentals of inte-
grating a solid oxide fuel cell and a micro gas turbine.
An analysis is made about the impact of modifying a
basic recuperative gas turbine cycle with a fuel cell for
the external heat addition process. Optimal pressure
ratio, cell temperature, and other parameters are
studied in order to establish a maximum efficiency
for each of the systems considered. After this basic
thermodynamic study, a comparison of part-load
behaviour is done and conclusions are drawn about
which of the systems is more convenient for different
working environments.
A brief description of the model used is presented –
a full description of the model is out of the scope of
this work – and, later, the three systems considered
in the analysis are described. To complete this techni-
cal study, a simplified economic analysis of installa-
tion and operation costs of the systems presented is
included. Conclusions are written in the final section.
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE FUEL CELL MODEL
Fuel cells are devices where hydrogen is oxidized to
water electrochemically, i.e. no combustion takes
place, in a strongly exothermic reaction (Dhf ¼
2242 kJ/mol), equation (1)
1 mixed. The calculation of Z is not complex although
H2 þ O2 ! H2 O
2 it involves very large equations which are not of inter-
A hydrogen stream enters the anode where hydro-
gen molecules are dissociated into protons at the
anodic surface. These protons migrate through the
electrode towards the contact surface between anode
and electrolyte, usually called three-phase layer,
where the oxidation takes place. At the same time,
an oxygen stream feeds the cathode. At this electrode,
oxygen ions are formed which migrate through the
electrolyte to the three-phase layer where they react
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
with the protons to form water. Water joins the
anodic gas and is exhausted from the cell.
A flow of electrons is established from the anode to
the cathode through an external circuit, i.e. electrical
load. This electric current is coupled to a voltage
difference between electrodes, which appears as a
consequence of the reaction taking place in the cell.
It can be ideally described by the Nernst equation,
equation (2)
!
Rg
T pH2
p1=2
O2
E ¼ E0 þ ln ð2Þ
ne
F pH2 O
E is the Nernst or ideal potential established between
electrodes and it depends only on temperature and
composition as shown in equation (2). E0 is the stan-
dard potential which is the potential at reference con-
ditions. The power developed by the cell is the
product of voltage and electric current
Wideal ¼ E
I ð3Þ
Regrettably, not all this power Wideal is useful due to
irreversibilities arising in the process described
above. In fact, a voltage drop DV takes place. There-
fore, the real work produced by the cell is
Wreal ¼ ðE  DV Þ
I ð4Þ
There are three contributors to the voltage drop:
ohmic losses, activation losses, and concentration
losses; these losses are usually called polarizations.
The ohmic polarization is caused by the resistance
to the flow of electric current in electrodes and elec-
trolyte and it can be easily described by the following
equation
DVohm ¼ Z
I ð5Þ
Z is the equivalent resistance of the cell. It depends
mainly on materials and temperature through the
electronic/ionic resistivity and, secondarily, on the
cell internal configuration, i.e. planar, tubular,
ð1Þ
est for this work. Readers who wish to know the pro-
cess to evaluate the ohmic polarization are referred to
reference [3].
Activation losses are related to the need to over-
come the activation energy of the half reactions
taking place at each anode. They depend on
materials, temperature, composition, and intensity.
The calculation of the activation loss is more com-
plex than the previous one and it involves evaluating
some necessary material properties, which is not an
JPE472 # IMechE 2008
 Comparison between conventional recuperative gas turbine and hybrid SOFC–GT systems
easy task. Therefore, simplified methods are used to
predict activation losses, Tafel equations being the
most common. Equation (6) shows the aspect of a
Tafel line relating current intensity and voltage drop
DVact ¼ a þ b
lnð jÞ
However, using Tafel equations can lead to a not
negligible error at low current densities, up to
20 per cent, so, for the present work, a more general
equation has been used. This expression is derived
from a general Butler Volmer equation after assuming
the commonly accepted hypothesis of symmetric
transfer coefficients equal to 0.5 [4]


Rg
T j0
DVact ¼ sinh1
F 2
j
Equation (7) is applicable to both anode and cath-
ode as j0, which stands for the so called exchange cur-
rent density, is different for each of them. The sum of
the activation loss at both electrodes is the total acti-
vation loss.
A more detailed analysis of the method to calculate
activation losses and the hypotheses made to obtain
equation (7) is given in reference [4].
Concentration losses are related to the velocity at
which species diffuse through the porous electrodes
and are consumed at the active sites where the oxi-
dation reaction takes place. Its calculation is there-
fore related to the capacity of feeding the reaction
with hydrogen and oxygen at a high enough rate. If
the concentration of any of the species reacting
were too low or if their rate of reaction were too
high or if they diffused slowly, the concentration
losses would increase. However, this type of polariz-
ation is very low compared with the previous ones;
in fact, one order of magnitude smaller. Thus, most
authors dismiss the concentration polarization and
only consider ohmic and activation losses. This has
been done in the present work.
3 FUEL CONDITIONING
3.1 Prereforming
Up to now, hydrogen has been considered to be the
only component of the fuel stream feeding the
anode. This is not usual. Hydrogen is not found as a
free gas in nature and it has to be obtained as a pro-
duct from an industrial process.
There are several techniques to produce hydrogen
from other compounds such as water, natural gas or
other and all of them imply a waste of energy.
Among these, natural gas is extensively used as fuel
for power producers, such as gas turbines or even
JPE472 # IMechE 2008
151
large piston engines, and a very vast supply network
is already available at almost any site where a
power plant is set. In addition, the process where
hydrogen is formed from natural gas, mainly
methane, is well known in heavy industries and its
ð6Þ application to fuel cells is therefore easy.
When dealing with natural gas, it is quite usual to
assume that it is formed exclusively by methane. If
longer chained hydrocarbons appear, they are con-
verted to equivalent methane. Thus, the following
reforming process is considered to take place inside
the cell
CH4 þ H2 O ! 3H2 þ CO ð8Þ
Equation (8) is called the reforming reaction and is
ð7Þ
strongly endothermic (Dhf ¼ 206 kJ/mol). In addition,
the following water–gas shift reaction occurs, which
is slightly exothermic (Dhf ¼ 241 kJ/mol)
CO þ H2 O ! H2 þ CO2 ð9Þ
As deduced from equations (8) and (9), hydrogen is
obtained from methane if water is present. To guar-
antee the presence of water and avoid undesirable
reactions that would form atomic carbon and block
the catalyst, part of the gases exhausting the anode
is recirculated and joins the raw fuel. This exhaust
stream contains up to 50 per cent (vol) of water
coming from the oxidation of hydrogen.
Recirculating exhaust gases not only supplies water
but also promote the endothermic reforming reac-
tion. Note that the exhaust gases are at a very high
temperature and can be used as a heat source for
the reforming process, which is favoured by high
temperatures.
Despite this, not all the methane feeding the cell
can be reformed inside it. If pure methane entered
the anode, the endothermic behaviour of the reform-
ing process, which is not balanced by the exothermi-
city of both hydrogen oxidation and shift reactions,
would cause a strong decrease in temperature. In
this situation, high stresses would appear in the
elements of the cell which would eventually deterio-
rate its performance noticeably and, eventually,
break it. Thus, a prereforming reactor is placed
outside the cell in order to have part of the methane
reformed before entering it. This prereforming reac-
tor is considered to be adiabatic and both reactions,
reforming and shift, are supposed to reach chemical
equilibrium at its exit. The equilibrium constant of
both reactions is related to the temperature at
which equilibrium is reached and it can be obtained
from the following equation
log kp;i ¼ aT 4 þ bT 3 þ cT 2 þ dT þ e ð10Þ
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
152 D Sánchez, R Chacartegui, T Sánchez, J Martı́nez, and F Rosa

where T is temperature in K and kp,i stands for the fuel utilization factor
equilibrium constant of both reactions
nH2 ; oxidized nH2 ; oxidized

 Uf ¼ ¼ 
p3 pCO n3 nCO p 2 nH2 ; supplied 3
nCH4 þ nCO þ nH2 raw fuel
kp;ref ¼ H2 ¼ H2 ð11Þ
pCH4 pH2 O nCH4 nH2 O ntot ð14Þ

pH2 pCO2 nH2 nCO2

kp;shift ¼ ¼ ð12Þ
pCO pH2 O nCO nH2 O
Molar flows are evaluated at the prereformer exit in
equations (11) and (12). Coefficients a to e in
equation (10) are different for each reaction as
shown in Table 1 [5].
3.2 Internal reforming
About 20 – 40 per cent of the methane in the raw fuel
is prereformed outside the cell, the rest of it being
completely reformed at the anode. For the water –
gas shift reaction, chemical equilibrium is assumed
again, this time at the operating temperature of the
cell. Equations (10) and (12) can be used to evaluate
the rate of the latter reaction.
4 FUEL CELL MASS AND ENERGY BALANCE
Section 3 has shown the procedure to evaluate how
much methane and carbon monoxide react accord-
ing to equations (8) and (9). In order to apply a
mass balance equation, the rate of hydrogen being
oxidized to water must still be evaluated.
The amount of hydrogen demanded by the cell is
related directly with the current intensity between
electrodes through Faraday’s law
j
A
nH2 ¼
2
F
where j is the current density and A the active cell
area. However, in order to avoid a lack of hydrogen
in a sudden change in the operational conditions
and to improve the performance of the cell, hydrogen
is supplied in excess with respect to what equation
(13) establishes. This excess is defined through the
Table 1 Coefficients in equation (10)
Reforming Shift
a 22.6312  10211 5.47  10212
b 1.2406  1027 22.5748  1028
c 22.2523  1024 4.6374  1025
d 1.9503  1021 3.9150  1022
e 266.1395 13.2097
As long as natural gas, methane, is used in most
cases as raw fuel, an equivalent hydrogen flow
must be calculated to determine how much fuel
feeds the cell. This equivalent hydrogen flow is
shown in the denominator of the rightmost term
in equation (14).
Finally, the amount of anodic exhaust gases being
recirculated to the prereforming reactor is deter-
mined by the steam to carbon ratio (STCR),
equation (15). This parameter measures the ratio
of water molecules to atomic carbon at the entrance
of the prereformer and its value must be in the
range from 1.5 to 3. A too high STCR would
ensure a high degree of prereforming but would
dilute the hydrogen flow and lower the efficiency
at the same time. Oppositely, if STCR were too
low, atomic carbon would probably be formed and
block the catalyst, causing a decrease in efficiency
as well.

nH2 O 
STCR ¼ ð15Þ
nCH4 þ nCO prereformer inlet
A mass balance equation can now be applied to the
fuel cell in order to calculate the outlet flow and com-
position of the exhaust gas at both electrodes. How-
ever, as said in the introductory section of this
work, air is supplied to the cathode well in excess
with respect to stoichiometry in order to cool down
the cell. The precise air flow is obtained by applying
a heat balance equation to the cell, not the prerefor-
ð13Þ mer, and calculating the amount of air needed to
maintain the operating temperature of the cell at
the desired value.
Compositions, molar flows, and temperatures are
the result of the application of both heat and mass
balance equations to prerefroming reactor and cell,
equations (16) and (17), respectively
Hfuel þ Hrecirculation  nref Dhref  nshift Dhshift
¼ Href effluent ð16Þ
Href effluent þ Hair  nref Dhref  nshift Dhshift
 noxid Dhoxid ¼ Hexhaust þ Welec þ Qloss ð17Þ
All total enthalpies considered in equations (16) and
(17) are temperature and composition dependent. In
addition, a heat loss to the surroundings has been

Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy JPE472 # IMechE 2008
 Comparison between conventional recuperative gas turbine and hybrid SOFC–GT systems
Fig. 1 Prereformer and fuel cell block diagram
considered as Qloss. A block diagram of the whole
system to which equations apply is depicted in Fig. 1.
5 HYBRID SYSTEMS
5.1 Configurations
A conventional micro gas turbine has been taken as
reference system in this work. These gas turbines
comprise a centrifugal compressor, backflow single
combustion chamber, radial turbine, and re-
cuperator.
Radial turbines cannot be cooled internally, what
means that turbine inlet temperature is relatively
low in comparison with heavy duty axial flow tur-
bines. As a result, efficiency decreases, this being a
major disadvantage of this kind of power generators.
To offset this characteristic of micro gas turbines,
hybrid systems are proposed. The heat addition to
the system is not done through a conventional com-
bustion process as in the former system, but through
an electrochemical process. During this controlled
oxidation not only heat is released but a considerable
amount of work is done, i.e. electrical work. The elec-
trical work is about three to five times higher than the
gas turbine if turbine inlet and cell temperatures are
the same. This means a remarkable boost in effi-
ciency, which reaches values close to 65 per cent
depending on the configuration of the hybrid system.
Figures 2 and 3 show two different layouts for
integrating gas turbines and fuel cells. Figure 2 is
representative of the direct hybrid system. The air
Fig. 2 SOFC – GT direct hybrid system
JPE472 # IMechE 2008
153
Fig. 3 SOFC – GT indirect hybrid system
leaving the compressor feeds the cathode of the
fuel cell after being preheated by the exhaust gas
of the turbine. The exhaust gas of the cell enters
the turbine where power is produced. Under this
configuration, the fuel cell is pressurized to up to
3 or 4 bar, increasing useful power and efficiency
considerably. In this sense, the efficiency of the
cell depends on the pressure ratio of the turbine.
Figure 3 shows an indirect hybrid system. In this
case, there is no mass exchange between fuel cell
and gas turbine and only heat is transferred between
subsystems. The air leaving the compressor is heated
up by the exhaust gas of the cell at a heat exchanger.
This hot air enters directly into the gas turbine where
it is expanded to produce power. Once expanded, the
exhaust air of the turbine is used to raise the tempera-
ture of the air feeding the fuel cell, which works at
atmospheric pressure. Thus, the efficiency of the
cell is lower than in the previous case but, on the
other hand, does not depend on the pressure ratio
of the turbine.
5.2 Microturbine model
The operation of heavy duty gas turbines is difficult to
model as long as many parameters are involved.
Firing temperature, inlet guide vanes position, inlet
air temperature and moisture, gas generator rotating
speed, variations of compressor and turbine efficien-
cies, inlet filters pressure drop, and turbine backpres-
sure are just some of the factors which have to be
considered. However, micro gas turbines are much
easier to model as most of its technology comes
from the piston engine supercharging industry.
In the present work, a high speed compressor –
turbine coupling has been considered whose charac-
teristic curves are shown in Fig. 4. A variable speed
operating line is shown dashed in Fig. 4, where hori-
zontal axis is the ratio of actual to design point cor-
rected mass flows, see equation (18), and vertical
axis is the pressure ratio. Corrected speed curves
have been drawn for completion of the model,
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
154 D Sánchez, R Chacartegui, T Sánchez, J Martı́nez, and F Rosa

Fig. 4 Characteristic curves of a compressor-turbine Fig. 5 Useful work versus pressure ratio for a
coupling conventional recuperative gas turbine

equation (19) engineer. Maximum work and efficiency are reached

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
m Tair
_c¼
m ð18Þ
pair
N slightly lower values can be obtained for state of the
Nc ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Tair
Efficiency lines have not been considered. Con-
stant efficiency lines for centrifugal compressors are
ellipses whose major axe is almost parallel to the
surge line and with a large major to minor axe ratio
[6]. Therefore, efficiency does not change substan-
tially with corrected mass flow as long as operation
follows the dashed line shown in Fig. 4. Thus, con-
stant efficiency is assumed for both compressor and
turbine. Mechanical and electrical efficiencies are
considered constant as well.
6 MODEL RESULTS
at different pressure ratios.
Some aspects of Figs 5 and 6 must be pointed out.
First, a maximum efficiency of 30 per cent LHV is
expected for the highest turbine inlet temperature;
ð19Þ
art engines. Second, choosing the pressure ratio for
the highest possible efficiency leads to a reduction
in useful work and conversely. However, for recup-
erative engines, this is a minor effect as pressure
ratios for maximum work and efficiency are very
close; for the 900 8C case shown in Figs 5 and 6,
these are 2.5 and 3.2, respectively. Finally, it is very
important to notice that, without being concerned
about which of the two parameters is to be maxi-
mized, both optimum pressure ratios are in the work-
ing range of state of the art single stage radial
turbomachinery. This is not the case for non-
recuperative engines.
Figure 7 shows the power ratio between fuel cell and
gas turbine for both types of hybrid systems and for

6.1 Full-load operation

Graphics in this section are design figures and, there-
fore, the use of performance maps like Fig. 4 is not
applicable [6]. Instead, a characteristic efficiency is
chosen for both compressor and turbine and, after,
a sensitivity analysis to pressure ratio and turbine
inlet temperature is carried on. The objective of this
‘design analysis’ is to identify the optimum perform-
ance parameters, if any, of a hybrid system in order to
adopt a particular design point. Once the design
point is chosen, performance maps are generated
for the part-load analysis presented in section 6.2.
The analysis has been done from the gas turbine
perspective. Figures 5 and 6 show the useful work
and efficiency versus pressure ratio curves of a recup-
erative gas turbine for different turbine inlet tempera- Fig. 6 Efficiency versus pressure ratio for a
tures which are well known for any gas turbine conventional gas turbine

Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy JPE472 # IMechE 2008
 Comparison between conventional recuperative gas turbine and hybrid SOFC–GT systems
Fig. 7 Power ratio from fuel cell to gas turbine for
direct and indirect hybrid systems
different cell temperatures. Curves are referred to the
same active area of the fuel cell, i.e. number of unit
cells in the stack. It is shown that the fuel cell produces
between three to five times more power than the gas
turbine for direct and indirect integrations, respect-
ively. Therefore, it is concluded that the pressure
ratio for maximum useful work at the turbine is not
of interest any more, since most of the power of the
system is produced by the fuel cell. Instead, global
efficiency is the main concern.
Substituting the combustion chamber with a fuel
cell affects the shape of the efficiency curves depicted
in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 8 for direct hybrid systems,
a rapid increase in efficiency is followed by stabiliz-
ation. This trend is very close to that which character-
izes fuel cells, for which pressure increases efficiency
in an asymptotic pattern. This behaviour is enhanced
initially by the improvement in gas turbine efficiency
with pressure ratio. The inversion of this trend for the
gas turbine, which is shown in Fig. 7, causes a slight
Fig. 8 Efficiency versus pressure ratio for a direct
hybrid system
JPE472 # IMechE 2008
155
decrease in efficiency which is visible in Fig. 8.
There is still an influence of temperature on the
value of optimum pressure ratio but, once stabiliz-
ation is reached, the efficiency is almost independent
of pressure ratio. Therefore, the following conclusion
is drawn from a practical point of view. Optimum
pressure ratios are out of the working range of state
of the art single stage centrifugal compressors,
which is limited to 4 or 5. However, for this maximum
affordable working pressure ratio, efficiency is quite
close to its maximum value. This statement is less
true as temperature increases over 1000 8C as working
temperature increases.
Figure 9 is similar to Fig. 8 but it applies to indirect
hybrid systems. As it was expected, these hybrid sys-
tems are less efficient than direct ones as long as the
fuel cell works at atmospheric pressure; i.e. the power
and efficiency enhancement caused by the effect of
pressure over the cell is not present now. Thus, the
general shape of the curve is closer to the custom
engine shown in Fig. 6, though shifted upwards. As
a consequence, the value of the optimum pressure
ratio for maximum efficiency at each cell tempera-
ture is well defined and there is a considerable
decrease in efficiency when working pressure ratios
differ from that optimum value.
However, there is a characteristic of indirect hybrid
systems that make them very interesting. It is shown
in Fig. 9 that the value of pressure ratio which gives
maximum efficiency is almost independent of temp-
erature. Therefore, it is guaranteed that although gas
turbine technology develops, and as a consequence
turbines can withstand higher temperatures, opti-
mum pressure ratios will still be attainable for
single stage radial compressors. This is an advantage
of this kind of integration that is not present in direct
systems except for the almost stabilized fashion of the
curves at current working temperatures.
Fig. 9 Efficiency versus pressure ratio for an indirect
hybrid system
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
156 D Sánchez, R Chacartegui, T Sánchez, J Martı́nez, and F Rosa
6.2 Part-load operation
A comparison has been done in the previous section
for gas-turbine-based power systems working at
design conditions. Among other advantages, hybrid
systems have shown to be capable of reaching
higher efficiencies than custom recuperative gas tur-
bines. Part-load operation will be analysed now.
Part-load operation of gas turbine engines is very
difficult to describe. Several strategies for load control
are available and, generally, the same engine can be
fitted with any of them depending on the turbine
duty. Furthermore, the load control system of a par-
ticular running engine can be changed upon request
to the OEM at a major overhaul.
Figure 10 shows the efficiency– load curves for
conventional gas turbine, direct, and indirect hybrid
systems. For the first case, a 4.5 MW, 38.5 per cent
LHV efficiency, single shaft recuperated gas turbine
working at part load and fitted with a two step
load control system is considered. For the first
10 per cent load change, variable inlet guide vanes
are used to decrease air mass flow through the
compressor. Pressure ratio decreases, improving the
effectiveness of the recuperating process at constant
shaft speed. Below 90 per cent load demand, and
with IGVs at its closest position, turbine inlet temp-
erature is reduced. By using this sequential load
control system, part-load efficiency is kept at its
best for slight load reductions. However, if load is to
be reduced to a very low level, say between 50 and
75 per cent, a dramatic decrease in efficiency
cannot be avoided. Working at variable speed bal-
ances this effect partially but an efficiency reduction
will still be present.
The behaviour reflected in Fig. 10 is expected from
the next generation micro gas turbine equipped with
variable geometry centrifugal compressors.
Direct hybrid systems are now considered. For
them, the efficiency – load curves in Fig. 10 show a
Fig. 10 Part-load efficiency for the systems considered
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
smooth quadratic shape that leads to an initial
increase in efficiency followed by a slight reduction.
This quadratic shape is due to the effect of pressure
on the cell. When reducing the load initially, a
decrease in mass flow is followed by both a reduction
in pressure ratio and current density for compressor
and fuel cell, respectively. The latter effect prevails
and, as a consequence, efficiency increases. However,
a further load reduction reverses this trend. The effect
of pressure, which increases exponentially towards
low pressures, is more important and cannot be
balanced by the improved efficiency of the cell.
Indirect hybrid systems do not follow the same pat-
tern at part load as indirect systems. The fuel cell runs
permanently at ambient pressure and its perform-
ance is only influenced by the reduction in current
density. The effect of pressure ratio is now almost
limited to the gas turbine and therefore, reducing
the load will always increase the global efficiency at
a similar rate as for standalone fuel cells.
7 ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
A brief economic analysis has been done in order to
complete the previous technical study. It is well
known that both fuel cells and micro gas turbines
are presently very expensive technologies and, there-
fore, they do not share a big piece of the electricity
market yet. However, as long as environmental
issues are promoting cleaner technologies and the
general layout of the electricity chain from supplier
to consumer is evolving towards a decentralized net –
commonly referred to as distributed generation –
the interest for these power systems is increasing.
In order to develop an economic analysis, cost
estimators for the costliest components of the
power systems exposed previously are considered.
These estimators are taken from reference [7],
though correction factors have been applied to
adjust the turnkey cost of each technology to the
value suggested by the International Energy Agency
in reference [8]. Thus, the reference installation cost
for the micro gas turbine is around 1000 USD/kW
for a 150 kW rated power engine, 1000– 1300 USD/
kW suggested in reference [8], while for the fuel cell
cost, it increases to 2000 USD/kW for the same
power capacity, 1900 – 3500/USD/kW suggested in
reference [8]. Note that these are reference values
that are expected to change with rated power. The
cost of auxiliary or secondary equipment – inverters,
combustors, and fuel compressors – is calculated as a
percentage of the cost of major equipment, Table 2,
as suggested in reference [7].
For the case of heat exchangers, a difference is
made depending on whether they are part of a stan-
dalone fuel cell or gas turbine or a complete hybrid
JPE472 # IMechE 2008
 Comparison between conventional recuperative gas turbine and hybrid SOFC–GT systems 157

Table 2 Installation cost estimators Table 3 Performance assumptions for O&M

Component Cost (USD)
Gas turbine Cturb ¼ 0.6(298.328 ln(Pturb) þ 1318.5) Pturb
Pcomp 0.67
Compressor Ccomp ¼ 0.6.915 62( ) (21)
445
GT auxiliary Caux ¼ 0.15(Cturb þ Ccomp)
equipment
Solid oxide CSOFC ¼ 1.7 . p . Nt . Dcell . Lcell
fuel cell (2.96 . Tcell 2 1907)
PSOFC 0.7
Inverter Ccomp ¼ 105 ( ) (24)
500
SOFC Caux,sa ¼ 0.1 . CSOFC
auxiliary
equipment
Caux,hs ¼ 0.4 . CSOFC
system. For the former, the cost of this equipment is
considered to be a 10 per cent of the major equip-
ment cost. For the latter, this value increases to
40 per cent of the fuel cell cost.
From data in Table 2, a calculation of the installa-
tion cost is done and presented in Fig. 11. The plot
shows that, as expected, the cost of standalone gas
turbines is significantly lower than any of the systems
incorporating fuel cells. Furthermore, for the case of
hybrid systems, it is shown that the indirect system
is more expensive than the standalone fuel cell,
due to the high cost of heat exchangers while hardly
any revenue in terms of increased power is obtained.
A second issue is now considered in the economic
analysis as it is not only the installation cost that
influences the adopted technology but also the oper-
ation and maintenance (O&M) cost. This second
analysis has been carried out with the assumptions
shown in Table 3, related to performance parameters
and fuel cost. Efficiency data are taken from the
analysis in section 6.1. The cost of natural gas is
assumed to be 39 USD/MWh high heating value
(HHV), which is the average value of the industrial
price in Spain for 2006.
cost calculation
Parameter Reference value
(20)
GT efficiency 27 per cent
SOFC efficiency 40 per cent
(22) Direct hybrid system efficiency 60 per cent
Indirect hybrid system efficiency 45 per cent
(23) Natural gas cost 39 USD/MWh HHV
Rated power 150 kW
(25)
Figure 12 shows the effect of the operating time on
the total, installation and O&M, costs for the different
(26)
technologies considered in this work. It is very inter-
esting to see that, due to the enhanced efficiency and
despite the higher installation cost, fuel-cell-based
technologies are economically attractive in the mid
and long term.
If a moderate 50 per cent load factor is assumed,
which is equivalent to 4380 full load equivalent work-
ing hours a year, the increased initial investment of
installing a direct hybrid system is counterbalanced
after 2 years with respect to conventional microgas
turbine technology. If, on the other hand, an indirect
hybrid system is considered, or a standalone fuel cell,
the time needed to offset the initial investment
increases to more than 4 years. These compensation
periods are shorter for higher power factors.
The comparison shown in this section is a simpli-
fied economic analysis that does not include the con-
sideration of how the investment is done – initial
equity, interest rate. . .– but allows for some general
conclusions to be drawn. In this sense, although
fuel-cell-based power systems are more expensive
than conventional gas turbines by a factor of 2,
Fig. 11, the enhanced efficiency of such hybrid sys-
tems leads to reduced O&M costs that offset their
higher initial investment. Furthermore, this compen-
sation time is even shorter than shown in Fig. 12 if the
difference in part-load efficiency, Fig. 10, is taken into

Fig. 11 Installation cost versus rated power Fig. 12 Total cost versus operating hours

JPE472 # IMechE 2008 Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
158 D Sánchez, R Chacartegui, T Sánchez, J Martı́nez, and F Rosa
account for derated operation. It can be assumed
therefore that hybrid systems are competitive techni-
cally and economically as long as reliability problems
that are currently affecting them are solved.
8 CONCLUSIONS
Hybrid systems are not a new concept for the scienti-
fic community. Studies have been done on inte-
gration layouts and pilot plants are running with
highly satisfactory performance [2]. However, a
mature technology has still to be developed, even
though these systems enter a commercial phase.
Despite this, hybrid systems are frequently studied
from the fuel cell perspective. The cell is considered
as a power system which is overcharged by means
of a turbocharger which, in addition, generates a
small amount of power. Thus, the global efficiency
is increased by around 15 points.
The work presented here adopts a new perspective.
The gas turbine user considers the hybrid system as a
gas turbine engine where the combustion chamber
has been substituted by a fuel cell. It is expected
that such a system performs similarly to a conven-
tional gas turbine with some deviations which must
be identified. This work is aimed at finding the differ-
ences between three different concepts of small scale
gas turbines by applying the principles of traditional
gas turbine theory.
The following particular conclusions are drawn.
1. At the moment, hybrid systems cannot be con-
sidered for base load due to the high manufactur-
ing cost and low power density of the fuel cell.
2. However, for small scale applications, particu-
larly distributed generation, hybrid systems are
much more efficient than state of the art conven-
tional recuperative gas turbines.
3. Hybrid systems of any kind are between 50 and
100 per cent more efficient than recuperative
gas turbine engines.
4. SOFC – GT hybrid systems have a pressure ratio
for maximum efficiency like conventional gas
turbines.
5. The efficiency curve for a direct hybrid system is
almost independent of pressure ratio near its
maximum point.
6. The pressure ratio for maximum efficiency of an
indirect hybrid system is almost independent of
cell temperature.
7. The part-load efficiency of a hybrid system is
remarkably higher than in the gas turbine
engine and it keeps close to the rated value inde-
pendently of the load demand.
8. For an indirect hybrid system, efficiency is higher
at part load than at full load.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy
9. The initial investment or installation cost of a
hybrid system is around two times higher than
a conventional gas turbine engine of the same
rated power. However, when operation and
maintenance costs are included, the total cost
of a fuel-cell-based plant is lower in the mid –
direct hybrid systems – or long term – indirect
hybrid systems.
10. Increasing the load factor shortens the compen-
sation period needed for the hybrid system to
be more interesting economically than a recuper-
ated gas turbine.
Readers might find contradictory the last conclusion.
Reducing the current density increases efficiency but,
at the same time, increases substantially the active
area, i.e. number of cells in the stack, which is
needed to generate the same power. From an econ-
omical perspective, it is more interesting to reduce
the installation cost of the system, i.e. cell area,
although operating cost increases due to a lower
efficiency.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the Spanish
National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA)
for funding this research project.
REFERENCES
1 Romier, A. Small gas turbine technology. Appl. Thermal
Eng., 2004, 24, 1709–1723.
2 Veyo, S. E., Shockling, A., Dederer, J. T., Gillett, J. E., and
Lundberg, W. L. Tubular solid oxide fuel cell/gas turbine
hybrid cycle power systems status. J. Eng. Gas Turbines
Power, 2002, 124, 845– 849.
3 Nisancioglu, K. Ohmic losses. In Proceedings of the IEA
Workshop on Mathematical Modelling, Charmey, 1998,
pp. 87 –98.
4 Sánchez, D., Chacartegui, R., Muñoz, A., and Sánchez, T.
Thermal and electrochemical modelling of internal
reforming solid oxide fuel cell with tubular geometry.
J. Power Sources, 2006, 160, 1074–1087.
5 Massardo, A. F. and Lubelli, F. Internal reforming solid
oxide fuel cells – gas turbines combined cycle
(IRSOFC-GT): part A – cell model and cycle thermodyn-
amic analysis. J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 2000, 122, 27–35.
6 Cohen, H., Rogers, G. F. C., and Saravanamootoo,
H. I. H. Gas turbine theory, 2001 (Prentice Hall, Harlow).
7 Calise, F., Dentice d’Accadia, M., Vanoli, L., and von
Spakovsky, M. R. Full load synthesis/design optimiz-
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8 Various authors. Distributed generation in liberalised
electricity markets, International Energy Agency, Paris,
2002, p. 26.
JPE472 # IMechE 2008
 Comparison between conventional recuperative gas turbine and hybrid SOFC–GT systems 159

APPENDIX Q total heat flow (J)

Rg ideal gas constant (J/mol K)
Notation STCR steam to carbon ratio
T temperature (K)
A cell active area (m2) Uf fuel utilization factor (per cent)
DHS direct hybrid system V voltage (V)
E Nernst potential (V) W work (J/mol)
F Faraday constant Z ohmic resistance (V)
GT gas turbine
h specific molar enthalpy (J/mol) DV voltage loss (V)
H total enthalpy (J)
I current intensity (A)
IGV inlet guide vanes
Subscripts
IHS indirect hybrid system
j current density (A/m2) 0 standard
j0 exchange current density (A/m2) act activation
kp equilibrium constant aux auxiliary
m mass flow (kg/s) comp compressor
n molar flow (mol/s) hs hybrid system
ne number of exchanged electrons ohm ohmic
N rotating speed (r/min) ref reforming
OEM original equipment manufacturer sa standalone
p partial pressure (bar) shift water – gas shifting
P power (kW) turb turbine

JPE472 # IMechE 2008 Proc. IMechE Vol. 222 Part A: J. Power and Energy