Eng. Tsvetomir Gachev, PhD student at the Technical University – Sofia, won the doctoral scholarship of the Carol Knowledge Foundation

The doctoral scholarship of 10,000 BGN from the Carol Knowledge Foundation for 2023 was won by Eng. Tsvetomir Gechev (left), a doctoral student at the Technical University – Sofia. He also won a place in the Entrepreneurs in Science program and the new Startup Building project. 

During his presentation, Eng. Tsvetomir Gechev literally handed the jury the elements with which he builds a test bench for a combined cycle with a solid oxide fuel cell stack and an internal combustion engine. When combined, they create a hybrid system with high efficiency, low harmful emissions, and wide applicability. This is also the goal of the dissertation project – to study their joint operation and the possibility of reducing CO2 emissions by using conventional hydrocarbon fuels. Such systems can be used for electricity generation or cogeneration, for household needs or in industry, as well as for primary propulsion of large transport vehicles such as ships, trains, lifting and transport machinery, and mining transport equipment. A solid oxide fuel cell can also be installed as an auxiliary unit in heavy-duty trucks and operate on LNG. As a final product, the doctoral student will create an innovative mobile test bench for studying a low-power LNG engine with various fuels, including testing with synthetic gas that mimics the composition of the anode gases of the solid oxide fuel cell stack. Through it, the combined cycle will be studied, important operating parameters, harmful gas emissions, and application potential will be determined. Simulation models of the solid oxide fuel cell stack and the LNG engine have already been created, as well as a 3D model of the future test bench. Part of the necessary equipment has been purchased. The engineer's ambitious long-term goal is the commercialization of the scientific work and local production in Bulgaria.