Membranes and Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells to Capture CO2 and Increase Energy Production in Natural Gas Power Plants

Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFCs) can be used for concentration of carbon dioxide in Natural Gas Combined Cycles (NGCCs) exhaust gas, at the same time increasing electrical energy: when used in combination with Gas Separation Membranes (GSMs) for final segregation of CO2, they constitute an interesting carbon capture solution. This paper analyses distributed parameter models for fuel cells and membranes in a global plant simulation, so as to propose an optimized NGCC-MCFC-GSM process configuration that takes into account both fuel cell operational constraints and the specific limitations of membrane technology. The integration obtained produces very good results, presenting in all scenarios better economic indicators than conventional amine absorption NGCC retrofit. Furthermore, a great margin for performance improvement exists if the fuel cell maximum hot-spot temperature limit is tackled.