Solid oxide fuel cell – internal combustion engine (SOFC-ICE) hybrid systems are an attractive solution for electricity generation. The system can achieve up to 70% theoretical electric power conversion efficiency through energy cascading enabled by utilizing the anode off-gas from the SOFC as the fuel source for the ICE. Experimental investigations were conducted with a single cylinder Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine by altering fuel-air equivalence ratio (ϕ), and compression ratio (CR) to study the engine load, combustion characteristics, and emissions levels of dry SOFC anode off-gas consisting of 33.9% H₂, 15.6% CO, and 50.5% CO₂. The combustion efficiency of the anode off-gas was directly evaluated by measuring the engine-out CO emissions. The highest net-indicated fuel conversion efficiency of 31.3% occurred at ϕ = 0.90 and CR = 13:1. These results demonstrate that the anode off-gas can be successfully oxidized using a spark ignition combustion mode. The fuel conversion efficiency of the anode tail gas is expected to further increase in a more modern engine architecture that can achieve increased burn rates in comparison to the CFR engine. NO_x emissions from the combustion of anode off-gas were minimal as the cylinder peak temperatures never exceeded 1800 K. This experimental study ultimately demonstrates the viability of an ICE to operate using an anode off-gas, thus creating a complementary role for an ICE to be paired with a SOFC in a hybrid power generation plant.

固体氧化物燃料电池–内燃发动机（SOFC-ICE）混合动力系统是一种有吸引力的发电解决方案。通过利用SOFC的阳极废气作为ICE的燃料源，实现能量级联，该系统可以实现高达70％的理论电功率转换效率。通过更改燃油-空气当量比（ϕ）和压缩比（CR），对单缸协同燃料研究（CFR）发动机进行了实验研究，以研究发动机负荷，燃烧特性以及干式SOFC阳极废气的排放水平。气体组成的33.9％H ₂，15.6％CO，50.5％CO ₂。通过测量发动机排出的CO排放量可以直接评估阳极废气的燃烧效率。在ϕ =  0.90和CR = 13：1时，最高的净指示燃料转换效率为31.3％  。这些结果表明，使用火花点火燃烧模式可以成功地氧化阳极废气。在更现代的发动机结构中，与CFR发动机相比，可以实现阳极尾气的燃料转化效率的进一步提高，该发动机结构可以实现更高的燃烧率。NO _X 由于气缸峰值温度从未超过1800 K，阳极废气燃烧产生的排放量极小。该实验研究最终证明了ICE使用阳极废气进行操作的可行性，从而为ICE产生了补充作用。与混合动力发电厂中的SOFC配对。