Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) is installing a pressurised hybrid power generation system in the Marunouchi Building, Tokyo.
This is the company’s first order for the system, which is designed to integrate solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks with micro gas turbines (MGT) to enhance energy savings and eco-friendliness.
Full-scale operations are expected to commence in February next year when renovation work on the building’s generators is completed.
Using city gas as fuel, the hybrid system generates electricity with both MGTs and ceramic SOFC stacks, which operate at a temperature of around 900℃.
Instead of burning fuel, the SOFCs generate electricity from the chemical reaction between oxygen in the air and hydrogen and carbon monoxide extracted from reformed city gas.
In addition, MGTs generate electricity from the post-process, resulting in an increase of efficiency by more than 65%.
The combined efficiency can be further increased to more than 73% as the remaining exhaust heat can be recovered as steam or hot water.
The hybrid system has the ability to reduce CO2 emissions by around 47% when compared to conventional power generation systems.
Demonstration tests for the system were conducted through the fiscal year ended 2016, while marketing for the system started last year.
