Study of CO 2 recovery in a carbonate fuel cell tri-generation plant

Abstract

h i g h l i g h t sSeparation of CO 2 in a biogas plant that co-produces electricity, hydrogen, and heat. The ability of MCFC is to concentrate CO 2 in the anode exhaust stream. Three cathode inlet configurations are considered. Results illustrate a high compatibility between hydrogen co-production and CO 2 recovery. A series configuration of MCFC technology coupled with an ICE achieves outstanding carbon recovery (exceeding 90%). a r t i c l e i n f o b s t r a c tThe possibility of separating and recovering CO 2 in a biogas plant that co-produces electricity, hydrogen, and heat is investigated. Exploiting the ability of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) to concentrate CO 2 in the anode exhaust stream reduces the energy consumption and complexity of CO 2 separation techniques that would otherwise be required to remove dilute CO 2 from combustion exhaust streams. Three potential CO 2 concentrating configurations are numerically simulated to evaluate potential CO 2 recovery rates: 1) anode oxidation and partial CO 2 recirculation, 2) integration with exhaust from an internal combustion engine, and 3) series connection of molten carbonate cathodes initially fed with internal combustion engine (ICE) exhaust. Physical models have been calibrated with data acquired from an operating MCFC tri-generating plant. Results illustrate a high compatibility between hydrogen coproduction and CO 2 recovery with series connection of molten carbonate systems offering the best results for efficient CO 2 recovery. In this case the carbon capture ratio (CCR) exceeds 73% for two systems in series and 90% for 3 MCFC in series. This remarkably high carbon recovery is possible with 1.4 MWe delivered by the ICE system and 0.9 MWe and about 350 kg day À1 of H 2 delivered by the three MCFC.

Dealing with fuel contaminants in biogas-fed solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) plants: Degradation of catalytic and electro-catalytic active surfaces and related gas purification methods

“…There are additional advantages related to the use of biogas in SOFC (or MCFC). We envision future energy plants with an enhanced exhaust recovery [36,37] (e.g., hydrogen recovery) and carbon management (i.e., CO2 recovery and possibly further re-use). In the framework of the EU-funded project SOFCOM [38], a 2 kWe SOFC stack was operated with sewage biogas (Figure 4).…”

A System Integration Analysis of a Molten Carbonate Electrolysis Cell as an Off-Gas Recovery System in a Steam-Reforming Process of an Oil Refinery

“…So far, the MCEC literature is not extensive even though the number of papers concerning this technology has increased in the last few years, which are mostly focused on labscale experiments using button cells (Hu et al, 2014(Hu et al, , 2016, planar single cells (Perez-Trujillo et al, 2018), and numerical models (Perez-Trujillo et al, 2018;Pérez-Trujillo et al, 2020;Barelli et al, 2020). Several studies analyze the integration of the MCC in the FC mode (MCFC) at the system level, especially as bottoming systems for biomass and gas turbine plants (Spinelli et al, 2014;Rinaldi et al, 2015;Roshandel et al, 2015) and as CO 2 removers where flue gas is fed to the OE, and then separated at the FE outlet under different operating conditions (Desideri et al, 2011(Desideri et al, , 2012, but also coupled with other technologies such as calcium looping (Della Pietra et al, 2018;De Silvestri et al, 2021). A limited number of studies (Barelli et al, 2020) have been carried out in terms of system integration analyses of MCC in the electrolysis mode (MCEC).…”

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

“…Recently, a project supported by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program aimed at building a prototype system for hydrogen refueling stations based on cogeneration of hydrogen and power using a SOFC (European Commission, 2021). A number of studies have been published over the years on the potential of high temperature IR-FCs for improved efficiency applications (Vollmar et al, 2000;Leal and Brouwer, 2006;Zhu et al, 2008;Guerrero et al, 2010;Hemmes, 2010;Hemmes et al, 2010;Verda and Nicolin, 2010;Margalef et al, 2011;Adams et al, 2012;Hemmes et al, 2012a;Hemmes et al, 2012b;Hemmes, 2013;Li et al, 2013;Peters et al, 2013;Mclarty and Brouwer, 2014;Nguyen et al, 2014;Shaffer and Brouwer, 2014;Hemmes, 2015;Rinaldi et al, 2015;Fernandes et al, 2016;Hemmes, 2016;Abdalla et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2018;Perna et al, 2018;Baldi et al, 2019;Panagi et al, 2019;Pérez-Fortes et al, 2019;Ramadhani et al, 2019). One such study, "Flexible Coproduction of Hydrogen and Power Using Solid Oxide Fuel Cells" serves as the basis for this study (Hemmes et al, 2008).…”