Model building on Electricity production via SOFC by using formic acid

Semester project

Spring 2024

Context

Nowadays, the energy supply is still heavily based on fossil fuels, therefore it is not considered sustainable and environmentally friendly. The scientific community is currently exploring different viable alternatives to replace the use of fossil fuels. Among all the potential fuels, renewable energy is considered as one of the solutions. However, due to the dynamic and intermittent nature of renewable energies and frequent mismatch of renewable-power supply and demand, energy storage has become a critical issue to deal with the increasing deployment of renewable energies, particularly wind and solar power. Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) has attracted huge scientific attentions in the recent years, as it is a promising power supply technology that can reduce user’s dependency of electricity-grid. It is a modern conversion technology, which can generate electricity by using liquid or gaseous fuels. Small volume and external fuel storage make SOFC technology more compatible and promising, and it can easily be adjusted for different industry power plant scales. Moreover, SOFC operates at high temperature (600 ◦C), and it cogenerates high-quality heat or steam, which can be used as a heat source within the system. Formic acid is a versatile compound with significant industrial applications, while also playing important roles in the organic chemistry. Its properties and uses make it a compound of interest across various fields. Formic acid reforming into hydrogen and carbon monoxide involves various thermal considerations, including reaction temperature, heat management, catalyst performance, and reactor materials. Optimization of these thermal aspects is critical for achieving high conversion rates, product yields, and energy efficiency in formic acid reforming processes. Linking formic acid reforming with SOFC, which can continuously to produce electricity, has attracted huge attention. Therefore, it is critical to build a formic acid based SOFC system, to understand some critical KPIs, such as kinetic reactions of reformer, electrical efficiency of the whole system, thermal efficiency, HEN design. After this step, it is also important to perform sensitivity analysis in improving system performance, such as anode-off gas recirculation. System model will be modified and improved through one existing APSEN simulation. The work will be done in collaboration with the GEM and IPESE.

The Tasks

The project consists of the following main steps:

  • Understanding formic acid based SOFC electricity production system.
  • Modifying and improving formic acid-SOFC ASPEN simulation.
  • Detecting the key process via the results, and carrying out the sensitivity analysis for different scenarios.

Skills

• Understanding of energy concept • ASPEN modelling skill

  • Lectures:
    • ME-454 Modelling and Optimisation of Energy Systems
    • Energy Conversion and/or Renewable Energy

Practical information

This project is a part of collaborative research work between IPESE (EPFL) and GEM (EPFL). The project will be conducted remotely. Weekly or biweekly meeting will be held online.

Supervisor

The project will be supervised by Xinyi (IPESE, GEM). If interested, please send your CV, with short motivation letter, to Xinyi. Xinyi Wei, mailto: xinyi.wei@epfl.ch;