Study of gas-steam combined cycle power plants integrated with MCFC for carbon dioxide capture

In the field of fossil-fuel based technologies, natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants are currently the best option for electricity generation, having an efficiency close to 60%. However, they produce significant CO2 emissions, amounting to around 0.4 tonne/MWh for new installations. Among the carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, the process based on chemical absorption is a well-established technology, but markedly reduces the NGCC performances. On the other side, the integration of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) is recognized as an attractive option to overcome the main drawbacks of traditional CCS technologies. If the cathode side is fed by NGCC exhaust gases, the MCFC operates as a CO2 concentrator, beside providing an additional generating capacity. In this paper the integration of MCFC into a two pressure levels combined cycle is investigated through an energy analysis. To improve the efficiency of MCFC and its integration within the NGCC, plant configurations based on two different gas recirculation options are analyzed. The first is a traditional recirculation of exhaust gases at the compressor inlet; the second, mainly involving the MCFC stack, is based on recirculating a fraction of anode exhaust gases at the cathode inlet. Effects of MCFC operating conditions on energy and environmental performances of the integrated system are evaluated. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.