Exploring the Possibility of Using Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell for the Flexible Coproduction of Hydrogen and Power

Abstract

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that are conventionally used to convert the chemical energy of fuels into electricity while producing heat as a byproduct. High temperature fuel cells such as molten carbonate fuel cells and solid oxide fuel cells produce significant amounts of heat that can be used for internal reforming of fuels such as natural gas to produce gas mixtures which are rich in hydrogen, while also producing electricity. This opens up the possibility of using high temperature fuel cells in systems designed for flexible coproduction of hydrogen and power at very high system efficiency. In a previous study, the flowsheet software Cycle-Tempo has been used to determine the technical feasibility of a solid oxide fuel cell system for flexible coproduction of hydrogen and power by running the system at different fuel utilization factors (between 60 and 95%). Lower utilization factors correspond to higher hydrogen production while at a higher fuel utilization, standard fuel cell operation is achieved. This study uses the same basis to investigate how a system with molten carbonate fuel cells performs in identical conditions also using Cycle-Tempo. A comparison is made with the results from the solid oxide fuel cell study.

Isolation and Characterization of Bacteria with High Electroactive Potential from Poultry Wastewater

“…However, several countries have made remarkable efforts to discover a workable solution to the energy problem by concentrating on renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, water energy, and wind energy [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Through the use of highly valuable metal catalysts, these experiments have revealed a novel method for producing energy using a fuel cell [ 6 ]. In actuality, there are numerous advantages to adopting fuel cells over other energy providers, including improved efficiency, the absence of mobile components that cause less sonic “pollution”, and the release of zero environmentally harmful gases, such as CO 2 , CO, NO x , and SO x .…”

Electrolysis Assisted Biomass Gasification for Liquid Fuels Production

“…Electrolysis at high temperature has several advantages, generally less energy intensive since part of the electrical energy needed to decompose the water molecule is replaced by the heat (Hu 2016), processing of hydrocarbon fuels with minor degradation of catalyst (Giulio and Nam, 2012), and the possibility to operate in reverse mode producing electricity (Mcphail et al, 2015). Neither the SOEC nor the MCEC technology is commercial today and heavily relies on R&D efforts to commercialize solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) (Küngas 2020) and MCFC (Barckholtz et al, 2021;Ferguson and Tarrant 2021;Monzer et al, 2021;Shikhar et al, 2021) where MCFC units of up to 3.7 MW are sold on the market and used in several power plants (10-60 MW) worldwide (Bove et al, 2008). In view of using high temperature electrolysis technology in applications utilizing CO 2 for co-electrolysis of CO 2 and H 2 O in CO 2 -rich streams, the MCEC technology is favored due to the highly solubility of CO 2 in the molten carbonate electrolytes (Chery et al, 2015).…”

Performance Prediction of High-Speed Hydrogen Gas-Lubricated Herringbone Grooved Journal Bearing

“…Hydrogen is regarded as a source of green energy, because it is non-toxic, pollutionfree, and makes zero contribution to the greenhouse effect. At present, the utilization of hydrogen energy mainly consists of the following aspects: hydrogen-powered vehicles, hydrogen power generation, molten carbonate fuels, and solid oxide batteries [1][2][3][4]. Related technologies are drawing increasing attention [1].…”