This paper presents the activities carried out during the first year of the project: “High Temperature Fuel Cell Hybrid Systems With High Efficiency And Low Environmental Impact” (Sistemi Ibridi con Celle a Combustibile ad Alta Temperatura ad Elevato Rendimento e Ridotto Impatto Ambientale per la Cogenerazione Distribuita). This project, funded by the Ministry of the University (MIUR, Progetto Fondo Integrativo Speciale per la Ricerca- FISR 2000 ), started on 10 February 2003 and will be completed on February 2005. Its main objective is the development of the capability to assess the performance of High Temperature Fuel Cell/Gas Turbine (FC/GT) hybrids for distributed power and heat generation. Four partners provide expertise in different fields: one stack manufacturer (Ansaldo Fuel Cells), two universities (Università di Genova and Politecnico di Milano) and one National Research Centre (ENEA). In fact, due to the complexity of the system, a close collaboration between the partners is necessary to join the different knowledge and to understand all the critical aspects. Moreover a direct exchange of information between the universities and the fuel cell manufacturer is mandatory for the assessment of the simulation models. The activities planned in this project concern, as a first step, the development of high temperature fuel cell (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell) models and theirs integration into system models. With these simulation tools different system configurations are in study in order to find the best solution for both the HTFC technologies. The analysis also concerns the off-design and transient behaviour of the whole system. These aspects are very important especially for the choice of the control system of the plant and the management of the start-up and shut-down procedures. Another topic that will be analysed in this project is the thermo-economic study of Hybrid System for distributed generation. The main important result will be the Fuel Cell cost suitable to obtain a competitive product on the energy market. In the final part of the project the possibility of including a CO2 sequestration system in the plant will be investigated. The impact of this system on the cost of the electricity will be analysed also considering the application of a suitable Carbon Tax. The activities carried out by the University of Genoa and Politecnico of Milano are separately described later on.
