Techno-economic assessment of biogas-fed solid oxide fuel cell combined heat and power system at industrial scale

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are currently very energy and greenhouse gas intensive processes. An important opportunity to reduce both of these quantities is via the use of biogas produced within the treatment process to generate energy. This paper studies the optimal energy and economic performance of a wastewater treatment facility fitted with a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) based combined heat and power (CHP) plant. An optimisation framework is formulated and then applied to determine cost, energy and emissions performance of the retrofitted system when compared with conventional alternatives. Results show that present-day capital costs of SOFC technology mean that it does not quite compete with the conventional alternatives. But, it could become interesting if implemented in thermally-optimised WWTP systems. This would increase the SOFC manufacturing volumes and drive a reduction of capital and fixed operating costs.