i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

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Efficient utilization of waste heat from molten

carbonate fuel cell in parabolic trough power plant
for electricity and hydrogen coproduction

Coulibaly Souleymane a,b, Jun Zhao a,*, Wenjia Li a,**

a
Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Low and Medium Grade Energy, Tianjin University, MOE, Tianjin, 300350,
China
b
Teacher Training College for Technical and Vocational Education, Bamako, University City of Kabala

highlights

Utilization of waste heat to support solar PTC power plant.

Recovery heat is used to generate steam for hydrogen production.

Minimum yearly energy efficiency of the SOEC is 70%.

Solar PTC/ST/MCFC has a good potential in term of hydrogen production.

article info abstract

Article history: Direct steam generating parabolic trough power plant is an important technology to match
Received 10 April 2021 future electric energy demand. One of the problems related to its emergence is energy
Received in revised form storage. Solar-to-hydrogen is a promising technology for solar energy storage. Electrolysis
11 August 2021 is among the most processes of hydrogen production recently investigated. High temper-
Accepted 24 September 2021 ature steam electrolysis is a clean process to efficiently produce hydrogen. In this paper,
Available online 14 November 2021 steam electrolysis process using solar energy is used to produce hydrogen. A heat recovery
steam generator generates high temperature steam thanks to the molten carbonate fuel
Keywords: cell's waste heat. The analytical study investigates the energy efficiency of solar power
Solar power plant plant, molten carbonate fuel cell and electrolyser. The impact of waste heat utilization on
Waste heat electricity and hydrogen generation is analysed. The results of calculations done with
Hydrogen production MATLAB software show that fuel cell produces 7.73 MWth of thermal energy at design
Energy efficiency conditions. 73.37 tonnes of hydrogen and 14.26 GWh of electricity are yearly produced. The
Steam electrolysis annual energy efficiency of electrolyser is 70% while the annual mean electric efficiency of
solar power plant is 18.30%.
The proposed configuration based on the yearly electricity production and hydrogen
generation has presented a good performance.
© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author. Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Low and Medium Grade Energy, Tianjin University, MOE, Tianjin,
300350, China.
** Corresponding author. Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Low and Medium Grade Energy, Tianjin University, MOE, Tianjin
300350, China.
E-mail addresses: zhaojun@tju.edu.cn (J. Zhao), liwenjia@tju.edu.cn (W. Li).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.09.210
0360-3199/© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
82 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1

Water electrolysis cells are classified into three main cat-

Nomenclature egories: alkaline electrolysis cells (T < 80 C); proton exchange
membrane electrolysis cells (T < 80 C); Solid oxide fuel cells
A area, (m2)
(T > 700 C) [9]. In Ref. [10], authors found that it is more ad-
AC alternating current
vantageous to electrolyse water at high temperature
CP heat capacity, (J.kg1 K1)
(800 Ce1000 C) because the energy is supplied in mixed form
DC direct current
of electricity and heat. The main advantage is that the sub-
DNI direct normal irradiance, (W.m2)
stantial part of the required energy for the electrolysis process
DSG direct steam generation
is added as heat, which is cheaper than electric energy.
F Faraday's number, (96485.34 C mol1)
Hydrogen has many advantages as it can be stored, ship-
HRSG heat recovery steam generator
ped and combusted without harmful reactants [11]. Use of
i current density (A.m2)
hydrogen to gradually decrease or take over a certain amount
IAM incidence angle modifier
of fossil fuels (natural gas essentially) is a practical method to
LHV low heating value (MJ.kg1)
reduce carbon emissions [12].
m_ mass flow rate (kg.s1)
Solid oxide electrolysers have good performance because
M molar mass, (g.mol1)
of their high operating temperature and they receive one part
MCFC molten carbonate fuel cell
of their total energy in the form of heat [13]. Parabolic trough
N cell number
collector plant can provide both heat and electricity to the
P pressure, (bar)
electrolyser. PTC/SOEC system performance investigation
PTC parabolic trough collector
caught attention of researchers. In many cases parabolic
Q_ thermal energy, (MWth )
trough collectors provide heat in the form of superheated
SOEC solid oxide electrolysis cell
steam to the electrolyser. Solar hydrogen production from
ST steam turbine
water is a sustainable alternative to traditional hydrogen
T temperature, (K)
production processes using fossil fuels [14].
TES thermal energy storage
In other hand, molten carbonate fuel cell is a high tem-
U cell voltage, (V)
_ perature fuel cell (600 C  700 C) which converts directly
W output power, (MW)
chemical energy (natural gas, methanol or hydrogen …) into
electricity and the by-product heat [2,15]. The fuel cell overall
efficiency depends on the amount of heat susceptible to be
Introduction recovered, it can reach 85%. Fuel cells and other hydrogen
using technology are expected to play an important role in a
A parabolic trough collector is a linear focus collector, basi- substantial transformation toward a more flexible, less
cally composed of a parabolic trough-shaped concentrator vulnerable distributed energy system which meets energy
that reflects direct solar radiation on to a receiver in the focal demands in a cleaner, more efficient and cost-effective way
line of the parabola [1]. Parabolic trough collectors are usually [16]. Methanol fuel is currently produced all around the world
employed for solar steam generation because relatively high and its consumption is very rapidly growing during last de-
temperature can be obtained [2]. Direct steam generation in cades [17]. Methanol as others alcohol has the benefits to be
parabolic trough causes an increase to competitiveness of easily handled, stored, transported and higher energy density
solar thermal power plants by substitution of oil with water in than compressed hydrogen [18]. In this design, the molten
the collectors that results in lower investment and operating carbonate fuel cell utilizes methanol to generate electricity.
costs [3]. To make sure the plants energy production conti- SOEC connected to a solar concentrating solar power plant
nuity, parabolic trough power plants need energy storage. One can help to reduce the electricity demand of the electrolyser
of the existing problem for the better integration and dis- [19]. The reason is that CSP offers the opportunity to deliver
patchability of direct steam generating power plants tech- both electricity and high temperature heat at the same site, so
nology is the availability of adequate, reliable and cost- it can fulfil the energy requirements of the SOEC, in terms of
effective thermal energy storage systems [4]. Only steam ac- electric and thermal duty [20]. Sanz-Bermejo et al. [21] have
cumulators with low storage capacity are commercially studied a direct steam solar tower plant powering a SOEC
available [5]. Converting solar energy into hydrogen (solar-to- stack. They found that the efficiency loss of the plant is
hydrogen) is another ways to store energy (chemical storage) reduced by 60%. Lin and Haussener. [22], have investigated the
and satisfy the inflexible and intermittent electricity demand feasibility of solar tower coupled with SOEC. Solar-to-
[6]. When the process uses heat and electricity, it's called hydrogen efficiency of 10.6% is reached. It is found that the
thermoelectrochemical process. Nowadays, water electrolysis solar thermal hydrogen production via electricity production
is considered as a key process that can be used for the pro- has higher exergy efficiency than PV hydrogen production
duction of high purity hydrogen from water and renewable [23]. Mohammadi and Mehrpooya [13] have designed a para-
energy sources [7]. In water electrolysis process, electricity bolic trough system to provide both required electric and
and water are consumed to generate hydrogen and oxygen thermal energy for the electrolysis process in order to increase
according the following equation [8]: the system efficiency and reducing the land occupation.
1 In this study, parabolic trough power plant provides only
ðH2 OÞl þ Electricity þ Heat /H2 þ O2 (1) electricity. The required steam is from the HRSG that uses
2
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1
the MCFC's exhaust heat. Use of the exhaust heat of fuel cell
aims to increase the fuel cell overall efficiency and energy
production (hydrogen and electricity). Mathematical model
is done. Efficiency investigation has concerned electricity
and hydrogen coproduction systems. The impacts of the
waste heat use on electricity and hydrogen coproduction is
also evaluated.
Model description
The presented system is composed of two subsets: electricity
generation subsystem and hydrogen production subsystem.
The main components of the entire system are: parabolic trough
collector, water/steam separator, pumps, steam turbines,
condenser, deaerator, molten carbonate fuel cell with internal
reformer, heat recovery steam generator, inverters, methanol
storage tank, and electrolyser, compressors and steam genera-
tion controller for the HRSG. Fig. 1 shows the connection be-
tween different elements of the system.
The main difference with other similar designs is that solar
PTC generates steam only for the steam turbine. The steam for
the electrolyser is from the HRSG using the exhaust heat of
MCFC. This heat is efficiently used because it is used to
generate steam to support solar system when the electrolyser
doesn't work. As the power from the fuel cell does not depend
on solar radiation, its integration can help to reduce the power
generation fluctuation as well as to get stable hydrogen and
electricity coproduction.
The necessary assumptions for the model development
are:
- The electrolyser is only powered by the parabolic trough
collector power plant;
- The steam for electrolysis is produced in the HRSG which
uses the exhaust heat of fuel cell;
- At design point (DNI ¼ 850 W m2), around 20% of the
output power is used in the electrolyser;
Fig. 1 e Electricity and Hydrogen Coproduction System flow chart.
83
- For an output power lower than 4.4 MW, the electrolyser is
not powered;
- The size of electrolyser is defined according to the elec-
trolyser heat demand;
- Fuel utilization factor is 0.85;
- Steam conversion rate is 0.726.
Electricity generation subsystem
In this subset, electricity is simultaneously produced from the
parabolic trough power plant and the molten carbonate fuel
cell. The solar power plant is hybridized with the MCFC
module. Two energy resources (solar energy and methanol)
are the input energy of this system.
Parabolic trough hybrid power plant
The solar field consists of parabolic trough collectors for satu-
rated steam generation. The outlet water of the deaerator en-
ters the in the solar field where saturated steam is generated.
The saturated steam is separated from water in the separator
and passes throughout the high pressure level of the power
block. The power block consists of steam turbines (high pres-
sure and low pressure), a dry cooling system, a deaerator and a
generator. The outlet water from the steam turbine (low pres-
sure level) is cooled in the cooling system and flows in the
deaerator. Pumps are used to ensure the fluid circulation inside
different pipes. The water from the separator and the feed
water of deaerator are pumped to the solar field again where it
is heated and evaporated: the system operates at recirculation
mode [24]. In this case, the feed-water flows much higher than
the steam. The solar field selected has the same arrangement
as the saturated steam plant located in Seville (Spain), which
has been designed and investigated in Ref. [25]. The plant in
Seville is a 5 MWe direct saturated steam process power plant
which operates at 285  C - 70 bars with a power block efficiency
equal to 24.9% [25]. The operating pressure is set to 90 bars as
that in Ref. [24]. The solar field is divided into 8 loops of 8
84 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1

collectors instead of nine loops like the plant located in Seville

because a HRSG is mounted in parallel with the loops. The solar
dispatching mode is adopted for this power plant. Table 1
summarises the main design parameters of the collectors.
Parabolic troughs for sunlight tracking use single axis.
The design calculations are done for the plant site
(latitude ¼ 37 050 N ; longitude ¼ 2 210 W ) on 21st of June at
solar noon. The incidence angle is 13 39’.
A heat recovery steam generator is mounted in parallel
with the solar field. When solar irradiation is insufficient to
generate the required steam flow rate, the feed water at the
inlet of the solar field is divided into two parts. One part is
introduced in the HRSG whereas the remaining water flows
into the solar field. The HRSG produces steam at the same
temperature and pressure as well as the evaporator. This kind
of system has been used in the coal-fired power plant in Sin-
kiang, China where solar collectors have been used for the
plant hybridization [26].
Molten carbonate fuel cell
An internal reforming molten carbonate fuel cell using
methanol is integrated to the solar power plant. An inverter
converts the output DC current into alternating current (AC)
for the grid. The fuel cell module consists of several cells,
defined by the cell area and current density. The sensitivity
analysis performed by M. Marefati et al. [27] showed that the
current density, operating temperature and pressure, fuel and
oxidant flow rate influence the cell performance.
The reforming process occurs at around 200 C and pro-
duces syngas (CO þ H2 ) according the following equation [28]:
CH3 OHgaz / COgaz þ H2gaz DH200 C ¼ 96:8kJ:mol1
The equilibrium conversion ratio of the methanol decom-
position can be improved by increasing the reaction temper-
ature but an increase of the pressure leads to a decrease of the
equilibrium [29].
When it operates, the MCFC net reaction equation is writ-
ten as [30]:
1 _ e þ waste heat
H2 þ O2 /H2 O þ W
2 the applications [37].
where W_ e is the output electric energy from the fuel cell.
The electrons flow from anode to cathode as shown in Fig.
2. Water is produced by anode side.
Fig. 2 e The MCFC working Principle scheme [31].
Hydrogen production subsystem
The challenges for widespread use of water electrolysis are to
reduce energy consumption, cost and maintenance and to in-
crease reliability, durability and safety [32]. Solid oxide elec-
trolysis cell is a promising electrochemical device with high
efficiency for energy conversion and storage [33]. SOEC is a high
temperature fuel cell which generally operates from 700 C to
1000 C [34]. The heat recovery steam generator receives the
exhaust gas from MCFC cathode and generates superheated
steam for the electrolyser whereas the solar power plant pro-
vides electricity. 7.77 kg min1 of water enters the HRSG at 25 C,
1 atm. The outlet steam (750 C  4bar) is used in the solid oxide
electrolysis cell for hydrogen generation. Hydrogen and oxygen
are produced according to the following equations [35,36]:
At the cathode, water is splitting as shown in Fig. 3;
H2O þ2e / H2 þO2 (4.a)
At the anode,
(2)
1
O2 / O2 þ 2e (4.b)
2
The net reaction is:
H2O / H2 þ O2 (4.c)
In hydrogen-based storage system the power and capacity
could be designed individually in order to match the needs of
(3)
Analytical modelling

From Fig. 1, it can be seen that the plant delivers power to the
grid by transforming the solar energy collected by the

Table 1 e Design parameters of ET-150 PTC [1,24].

Parameter Value
Parabola width (m) 5.76
Overall length of a single collector (m) 147.5
Net collector aperture per collector (m2) 548.35
Outer diameter of steel absorber pipe (m) 0.07
Inner diameter of steel absorber pipe (m) 0.055
Peak optical efficiency 0.75
Mirrors reflectivity 0.92
Receiver pipe absorptance 0.945
Glass cover transmittance 0.95
Thermal emissivity ( C) 0.04795 þ 0.00002331*T Fig. 3 e Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell operating scheme [36].
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1 85

parabolic trough collectors. The system is support by the

molten carbonate fuel cell which exhaust heat is converted _ sol ¼ n*Q_ th *hPB
W (11)
into steam. During peak hours of solar radiation, the SOEC is
used to produce hydrogen by using steam from the HRSG and where hPB is the efficiency of the power block, n is the number
electricity from the grid. of loop.
The electric energy efficiency is calculated according to the
Solar field model following formula:

W_ sol
The solar field design in this investigation consists of 8 loops h¼ (12)
Q_ sol
of collectors. Each collector loop is composed of 8 collectors: 3
collectors are devoted to water preheating whereas 5 are used
Molten carbonate fuel cell system model
for water evaporation. The solar field model is based on the
model presented by in Ref. [24]:
The direct current's output power is defined as [27]:

The water mass flow can be modelled by a first order
polynomial function of the direct normal irradiance:
m_ loop ¼ 1:68,DNIincident  0:0495
W_ MCFC;DC ¼ Ncell ,Acell ,i,Vcell (13)
where Ncell represents the cell number of the module; i is the
current density. Acell is the cell area and Vcell is the cell voltage.
(5) In equation (14), hinv is the efficiency of the inverter.
The fuel cell net power production is:

W_ MCFC;AC ¼ hinv ,W_ MCFC;DC (14)

The heat gain per collector loop fit to a first order poly-
The MCFC module electrical efficiency based on the lower
nomial function of DNI and outlet solar field pressure [24]:
heating value is calculated with the following formula:

  W_ MCFC;DC  W_ comp
100  Poutlet hMCFC;el ¼ (15)
Q_ th ¼ 3:4 103 ,DNIincident þ  105 (6) _
mf ,LHVf
2
The amount of heat from the molten carbonate fuel cell is:

Q_ MCFC;th ¼ ð1  hMCFC;el Þ m_ f ,LHVf (16)

The loop thermal energy efficiency is defined as:
where m_ f and LHVf are the fuel mass flow rate and lower
heating value respectively.
Q_ th The fuel cell thermal efficiency is:
hloop ¼ (7)
Q_ sol
hMCFC;th ¼ hrec ð1  hMCFC;el Þ (17)
where m_ (kg.s1), DNIincident (kWth ) and P (bar) are respectively
The amount of recovered thermal energy from the exhaust
inlet water mass flow, the incident DNI to the collector aper-
gas is:
ture area and the outlet solar field pressure.
The following equation is used to calculate Q_ sol [38]: Q_ th;rec ¼ hrec ,hHRSG ,Q_ MCFC;th (18)

Q_ sol ¼ DNI,IAM,Ac ,cos q (8) where hHRSG and hrec are respectively the HRSG efficiency and
MCFC heat recovery efficiency.
Ac (m2) is the collector aperture area for one loop, q is the
The overall efficiency of the fuel cell is defined as [40]:
incidence angle and IAM is the incidence angle modifier.
The useful heat Q_ th can be also written as function of W_ MCFC;DC þ Q_ th;rec
hMCFC ¼ (19)
temperatures [39]: m_ f ,LHVf
The output power of the power block when it's fed by the
Q_ th ¼ m_ loop ,CP ðTout  Tin Þ (9)
HRSG is:
where CP (J kg1 K1) is the specific heat of water, Tin (K) and
Tout (K) are respectively the inlet and outlet temperature of the W_ ¼ Q_ th;rec ,hPB (20)
collector loop.
where hPB represents the power block efficiency.
The percentage reduction in turbine efficiency as a func-
tion of the flow ratio is [26]:
Solid oxide electrolysis cell model


2
%Reduction ¼ 0:191  0:409 m_ m_ ref þ 0:218 m_ m_ ref (10)
The nominal power of the electrolyser must be equal to the
where m_ represents the flow rate at part load conditions, m_ ref maximum produced power for hydrogen generation. It's
is the flow rate at the design conditions. expressed as [41]:
When it receives the thermal energy from solar collectors,
W_ lyser ¼ N,A,j,Ucell (21)
the power block generates electricity. The output power of the
solar system is calculated as:
86 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1
where A is the cell area and j is the current density. The
electrical energy applied to the electrolyser might not be
enough to drive the system's unspontaneous reactions. The
remaining energy is provided in the form of heat by the heat
recovery steam generator.
The total number of cells, N, is determined such as:
 In this study, the solar power plant combined with the molten
N¼W_ lyser ðA , j , Ucell Þ
The hydrogen production rate which depends on the
transfer rate of electrons can be expressed as:
N,MH2 ,j,A
m_ H2 ;produced ¼
2F  1000
where F is Faraday's number. When the available power for
hydrogen production is defined, the amount of hydrogen
susceptible to be produced can be easily calculated. The water
demand depends to the hydrogen flow rate.
The required water flow rate is:
m_ H2O ¼ 9m_ H2 ;produced
The energy efficiency of electrolyser combined with the
HRSG is defined as [42]:
LHVH2 ,m_ H2 ;produced
hlyser ¼
W_ lyser þ Q_ HRSG
where Q_ HRSG represents the total heat provided by the heat
recovery steam generator.
System operation optimization
The heat from the molten carbonate fuel cell is recovered. A
part is used for the methanol reforming, other part is used
to produce steam in a heat recovery steam generator. This
steam is sent to the electrolyser when electricity produced
by the solar system is enough to satisfy electric energy de-
mand. At lower DNI times (DNI< 700 W m2) the HRSG
generates saturated steam for the power block in order to
generate more electricity. This is possible by controlling the
HRSG inlet water flow and steam pressure because the
steam flow rate and pressure change according to the steam
use in this design. Here, it is proposed an operating principle
for the heat recovery steam generator according to certain
parameters:
_ sol  4.4 MW, the maximum inlet water flow rate of the

If W
HRSG is 0.1295 kg s1. The water flow rate at a given
moment depends on the power block output electricity.
The outlet temperature and pressure are respectively 750 C
and 4 bar. The steam is led to the electrolyser.
_ sol < 4.4 MW, the maximum inlet water flow rate of the

If W
HRSG is 3.97 kg s1. The steam is produced at 285 C - 90 bar,
then, it's sent to the steam turbine. The inlet water flow
rate of the HRSG depends on the incidence of direct normal
irradiance.
The success of the system depends strongly on the effec-
tiveness of HRSG's steam management system. The most
important parameters to be controlled are: the inlet water
flow rate, the steam outlet temperature and pressure. They
allow to direct the steam in the turbine or the electrolyser.
Results and discussion
(22) carbonate fuel cell uses a solid oxide electrolysis cell to
annually produce 73.34 tonnes of hydrogen. The solar system
generates 14.26 GWh of electricity with a yearly solar-to-
electricity efficiency of 18.30%. The annual energy efficiency
(electricity and thermal energy to hydrogen) of the electro-
(23)
lyser is 70%. 7.73 MWth is recovered from the MCFC waste
heat corresponding to 36.0% of the heat from solar field at the
design point.
Model validation
The thermal efficiency of the solar field is 74.72% in this study
(24) while it is 74.81% in Ref. [24] for the same location and design
point. We can easily affirm that the value obtained here is
reasonable.
For the same fuel utilization rate, at the same operating
temperature and pressure the result of the fuel cell model are
(25)
very similar to those in Ref. [27] as shown in Table 2.
Except the values of SOEC efficiency, the data in Table 3 are
almost the same. The efficiency is a little higher in this
investigation due certainly to the steam conversion rate. The
data found in this study should be considered acceptable.
Results and analysis
Solar power plant
The results of the design calculations performed on June 21st
for the power plant site are listed in Table 4. The output power
exceeds the design point of 5 MWe at 11 a.m. and decreases 1 h
later. The maximum efficiency is reached at the same date.
The minimum electric energy efficiency obtained is 17.39% at
6 p.m. when the solar field receives 300 W m2.
For the off - design analysis the minimum DNI considered
is set to 250 W/m2. The solar field generates saturated steam
for the steam turbine. For 4386.8 m2 of solar collectors,
21.5MWth is converted into electricity on June 21st. It's dis-
played in Fig. 4.a that the electric energy efficiency increases
with 7% from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. At design point, the electric
energy efficiency is almost stable like the thermal efficiency.
The peak energy efficiency equal to 18.61% is reached at 11
a.m. The solar power plant off-design efficiency analysis
concerns two dates: January 18th and March 16th. For all days,
Table 2 e MCFC model validation.
Parameters Literature Data [27] This study
Temperature ( C) 650 650
Pressure (atm) 1 1
AC power (MW) 78.10 14.76
Fuel utilization rate (%) 85 85
Input energy (MW) 179.44 31.15
MCFC efficiency (%) 71.79 74.67
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1 87

Table 3 e SOEC model validation. Table 5 e Monthly output energy and energy efficiency
values for the solar power plant.
Parameters Literature Data [43] This study
Month Output energy (GWh) Energy efficiency (%)
Temperature ( C) 750 750
Pressure (bar) 4 4 Jan 0.894 18.391
AC power (MW) 1.2850 1.250 Feb 1.083 18.338
Steam conversion rate (%) e 72.6 Mar 1.219 18.344
Input water (kg.s1) 0.12949 0.12950 Apr 1.323 18.325
Output hydrogen (kg.s1) 0.01014 0.01040 May 1.409 18.297
SOEC efficiency (%) 71.1 80.72 Jun 1.513 18.366
Jul 1.517 18.320
Aug 1.534 18.326
Sep 1.305 18.359
Table 4 e Design-point results for solar power plant. Oct 0.905 18.192
Nov 0.644 18.066
Parameter Value
Dec 0.917 18.287
Useful heat (MWth ) 21.5
14.263 18.301
Thermal energy efficiency (%) 74.72
Heat loss (MWth ) 7.27
Electric energy efficiency (%) 18.61
energy production depends on the DNI value and also the
Output power ( MW) 5.35
power plant operating time.
The annual electric generated energy is 14.26 GWh. The
the efficiency reached the peak at 11 a.m. (Fig. 4b). From 8 a.m. annual average electric energy efficiency here is 18.30% very
to 4 p.m. on March the electric energy efficiency is very close close to that in Ref. [44] which is 18.50% for the same location
to that of the design conditions. The maximum electric energy and size of power plant. The solar system mainly operates at
efficiency on January 18th is almost the same for the design off-design conditions. The use of fuel cell in the system can
point but it's very unstable with a second peak at 1pm and a help to make stable the energy production.
third at 4 p.m. The use of stable heat source like a molten
carbonate fuel cell can help to make stable the system pro- Molten carbonate fuel cell integrated with solar power plant
duction at this condition. The fuel cell used for the hybridization got 41,100 cells of
The energy production and energy efficiency for the solar 0.36 m2. The cell's current density is 1500 A.m2 and the
power plant from January to December are displayed in Table 5. module operates at 650 C -1 atm [45].The inverter efficiency is
The maximum average energy (1.534GWh) is produced on 0.95.The design results of the molten carbonate fuel cell are
August whereas the higher electric energy efficiency (18.39%) presented in Table 6. The electric efficiency and the overall
is reached on January. DNI values are higher in January but the efficiency are calculated to be 44.88% and 74.67%, respectively.
system operating time is smaller than that of August. For all The recovered thermal energy from the fuel cell is used in
months, the electric energy efficiency of the solar power plant the heat recovery steam generator mounted in parallel with
is lower compared with that of the design point (18.61%). The the eight loops of the solar field. During insufficient sunny
smallest value of energy efficiency for the solar power plant is times, the HRSG produces saturated steam to support the
18.07% on November because the DNI values are lower and solar field. 7.73 MWth of thermal energy as displayed in Fig. 5,
also the plant operates only 169 h. The electric energy effi- is available from the MCFC module and can be used to support
ciency depends strongly on the DNI values whereas the the solar field. This amount of heat corresponds to 3 loops
under 817 W m2 at the design point. At sufficient sunny time,

0 2 4 6 8 10

0 2 4 6 8 10 19.0 10

100 10

Thermal
90
Electrical 18.5
8
Electric Efficiency(%)

80 8

70 18.0
Efficiency(%)

60 6 Jun
17.5 Mar
50 Jan
4
40 4

17.0
30
2
20 2
16.5
10

0 0 16.0 0

6 9 12 15 18 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Time (h) Time (h)

(a) (b)

Fig. 4 e (a) Hourly variation of thermal and electric efficiency of the solar power plant on June 21st - (b) Hourly efficiency of
solar power plant for representative days (January 18th, March 16th, and June 21st).
88 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1

directly related to the available DNI. The thermal energy of the

Table 6 e Design results of the MCFC model.
solar field is higher than that of the heat recovery steam
MCFC Value Unit generator from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The steam generated in the
Electric efficiency 44.88 % HRSG is used to support the solar field.
Thermal efficiency 46.85 % For example on December 18th, the DNI varies from
Overall efficiency 74.67 % 361 W.m2 at 9 a.m. to 167 W.m2 at 4 p.m. The minimum
Net power production 14.76 MW
turbine inlet steam is 0.162 m _ ref whereas the maximum is
Cell voltage 0.7 Volt
0.774 m_ ref before the plant hybridization as shown on Fig. 6.
Current density 1500 A.m2
Fuel consumption 1.55 kg.s1 The reference value of the steam is reached two times. The
Recovered thermal energy 7.73 MWth minimum value of the steam mass flow rate reference be-
tween 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. is around 50% after hybridization. On
night hours, 7.73 MWth from fuel cell is used to generate
0 2 4 6 8 10
10 constantly 0.333,m_ ref .
Qth_sol The reduction in steam turbine efficiency decreases from
20
Qth_HRSG 13.0% before hybridization to 4.2% after use of the steam from
8
the HRSG at 4 p.m. At 9 a.m., the reduction in steam turbine
Thermal Energy (MW)

efficiency for the hybrid system is only 1.0%. The system be-
15
6
comes more stable and productive because of the increasing
in steam turbine efficiency after hybridization.

10
4
Hydrogen generation
The solid oxide electrolysis cell consists of a single unit of 1.25
5 MWe. The unit has 23,070 cells of 69.3 cm2. The electrolyser
2

operates with a current density of 0.63 A cm2 a cell voltage of

1.241 V [46]. The operating temperature and pressure are
0 0 respectively at 750 C and 4 bar.The electrolyser size has been
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 defined according to the output power of the solar power plant
Time (h) at the design point. It's assumed that 20% of the electricity
generated by the parabolic though collector direct steam
Fig. 5 e Hourly evolution of useful heat of solar field and generating power plant can be converted into hydrogen as the
available heat from the heat recovery steam generator
plant is not design to meet a specific energy demand. The
output on December 18th. calculations result is presented in Table 7.
At 770 C and current density of 1.25 Acm2, 93% of elec-
0 2 4 6 8 10
trolysis efficiency is achieved in Ref. [47] whereas it’s 81% here
1.1 10

at 750 C and current density of 1.24 Acm2. Cells voltages and

1.0 operating pressure are certainly on the basis of difference
m/mref-before
0.9 m/mref-after 8 between efficiencies of the systems.
Limit At stable operating condition the electrolyser generates
0.8
37.44 kg h1 of hydrogen with an efficiency equal to 81% when
0.7 6
the solar power plant operates at design conditions. As the
m/mref

0.6 fuel cell has the size as that in Ref. [43] and operates at the
same conditions, the results are almost the same. The main
0.5 4
difference is that the thermal energy is from the fuel cell while
0.4 in the other case it is from PTC. PTC produces steam only for
power generation in the present work.
0.3 2

When the power production is much higher than the

0.2 power demand on June 21st, MCFC operates 24 h/24 of which
0.1 0 12 h alone; PTC works during 12 h/24. The hydrogen
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
Time (h)
Table 7 e Solid oxide electrolysis cell operating
Fig. 6 e Hourly comparison of steam turbine inlet steam
parameters.
mass flow with the reference value before and after
Parameter Value Unit
hybridization.

Operating temperature 750 C
Operating pressure 4 Bar
the HRSG generates superheated steam for the electrolyser. Nominal electric power 1.25 MW
The amount of produced heat depends only on the fuel cell Steam conversion rate 0.726 e
operating conditions (temperature, pressure, and fuel and Hydrogen production rate 0.010 kg.s1
oxidant mass flow rate) whereas the amount of used heat is Energy efficiency 81 %
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1 89

0.7 electrolyser. The minimum value of hydrogen mass is

Plyser 2:23,103 kg in November. During its operating times, the
1.4 mH2 electrolyser generates at least 80% of its nominal hydrogen
0.6 production capacity. For the whole year, 73:37,103 kg of
hydrogen is obtained from the system. The annual minimum

mH2(kg/min)
Plyser (MW)

1.2
1.0
0.8
9 10 11 12
Time (h)
Fig. 7 e Hourly power and hydrogen production rate of
electrolyser on June 21st.
production subsystem operates during 6 h and produces 7.2
MWh of hydrogen energy. The maximum electric energy feeds
to the electrolyser is 1.25 MW while the minimum is 1 MW.
The hydrogen production rate is more stable (from
0.5 kg min1 to 0.624 kg min1) as shown on Fig. 7.
According to the DNI and the output power from the solar
power plant, the electrolyser operates at full load (DNI 
850 W m2) or partial load (700 W m2  DNI < 850 W m2).
Based on this assumption, the electrolyser works 2275 h per
year of which 489 h in full load. In Fig. 8a, the monthly oper-
ating time of the electrolyser is shown. The full load operating
time represents 21.49% of the total operating time. The
maximum full load time is reached in April (80 h). The largest
operating time is achieved in August with a small percentage
of full load operating time. In many times the electrolyser
works at off design conditions. In April the maximum
hydrogen mass (8:17,103 kg) is generated as shown on Fig. 8b.
This month got the highest full load operating time for the
energy efficiency of the electrolyser is 70% based on the low
0.5 heating value of hydrogen.
The use of fuel cell waste heat allows to obtain an overall
efficiency of 74.67% at the design conditions. In their studies,
Mehrpooya et al. [48] and Mehrpooya et al. [49] respectively got
0.4
71.71% and 78% as overall efficiency of fuel cell by using its
exhaust heat. Chacartegui et al. [50] obtained an overall effi-
ciency of 72.5% for MCFC module. Designed systems are
0.3
13 14 15 different but all of them used the waste heat from MCFC.
According to literature the system presented here can be
considered efficient in term of fuel cell waste heat utilization.
This heat is used in the electrolyser which production rate is
0.01 kg/s at design conditions. For a MW scale hydrogen pro-
duction plant operating at 750  C, Monnerie N et al. [19], found
a production rate of 0.009 kg/s. Also for Seitz et al. [51], a
14 MW SOEC-800  C, produces hydrogen at the rate of 400 kg/h
(0.111 kg/s). This means 1.25 MW produces 0.0099 kg/s. It can
be affirmed that the production rate find here (0.01 kg/s) is
comparable with literature.
Conclusion
Electricity and hydrogen coproduction from solar parabolic
trough collector power plant and MCFC was investigated. The
presented system uses the waste heat of a MCFC module
instead of solar thermal energy, and electricity from solar
power plant, to produce hydrogen by steam electrolysis pro-
cess. Electricity is generated during night hours by the fuel cell
which uses the stored hydrogen. The effects of MCFC waste
heat use on the system performance were considered. The
annual mean efficiency of solar PTC power plant and the

0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10

220 10
9 10

Full Load
200 Partial load 8
Hygrogen mass
180
Hygrogen mass (*103kg)

8 8
7
160
Operating time (h)

6
140
6 6

120 5
100 4
4 4

80
3
60
2
40
2 2

20 1

0 0
0 0

Jan Fev Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Fev Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month Month
(a) (b)

Fig. 8 e (A) Monthly operating time of electrolyser for partial and full load modes (b) hydrogen mass production for all
months.
90 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 7 ( 2 0 2 2 ) 8 1 e9 1
minimum annual efficiency of the electrolyser are respec-
tively 18.3% and 70%. The yearly maximum efficiency based
on hydrogen LHV of the MCFC is 74.67% at 650 C - 1 atm. From
the results analysis, it is concluded that solar PTC powered
SOEC system has a good potential in term of energy efficiency.
The HRSG mounted in parallel with solar collector loops al-
lows to reduce the size of the solar field and help to obtain
stable power and hydrogen coproduction. The use of MCFC
and the recovery of its exhaust heat help to reduce the im-
pacts of solar radiation variation on the coproduction system
and improve its efficiencies. The proposed hydrogen produc-
tion system is found suitable for parabolic trough collector
power plant combined with MCFC module.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51906176).
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