Energy, exergy, and environmental (3E) assessments of an integrated molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), Stirling engine and organic Rankine cycle (ORC) cogeneration system fed by a biomass-fueled gasifier

In this paper, a novel syngas-fed combined cogeneration plant, integrating a biomass gasifier, a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) unit, a Stirling engine, and an organic Rankine cycle (CRC), is introduced and thermodynamically analyzed to recognize its potentials compared to the previous solo/combined systems. For the proposed system, energetic, exergetic as well as environmental evaluations are performed. Based on the results, the gasifier and the fuel cell have a significant contribution to the exergy destruction of the system. Through a parametric study, the current density and the stack temperature difference are known as the main effective factors on the plant performance. Meanwhile, dividing the whole system into three sub-models, i.e., model (1): power production plant including the gasifier and MCFC without including Stirling engine, HRSG, and ORC unit, model (2): the cogeneration system without ORC unit, and model (3): the whole cogeneration system, an environmental impact assessment is carried out regarding CO2 emission. Considering paper as biomass revealed that maximum value of exergy efficiency is 50.18% with CO2 emissions of 28.9 x 10(-2) t.MWh(-1) which compared to the solo MCFC system indicates 28.40% increase and 13.3 x 10(-2) t.MWh(-1) decrease in exergy efficiency and CO2 emission, respectively. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.