An Innovative Configuration for CO₂ Capture by High Temperature Fuel Cells

Many technological solutions have been proposed for CO₂ capture in the last few years. Most of them are characterized by high costs in terms of energy consumption and, consequently, higher fossil fuel use and higher economic costs. High temperature fuel cells are technological solutions currently developed for energy production with low environmental impact. In CIRIAF—University of Perugia labs, cylindrical geometry, small-sized molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) prototypes were built and tested with good energy production and lifetime performances. In the present work, an innovative application for MCFCs is proposed, and an innovative configuration for CO₂ capture/separation is investigated. The plant scheme is based on a reformer and a cylindrical MCFC. MCFCs are the most suitable solutions, because CO₂ is used in their operating cycle. An analysis in terms of energy consumption/kgCO₂ captured is made by coupling the proposed configuration with a gas turbine plant. The proposed configuration is characterized by a theoretical energy consumption of about 500 kJ/kgCO₂, which is quite lower than actual sequestration technologies. An experimental campaign will be scheduled to verify the theoretical findings. View Full-Text