Eric Grol, Office of Systems Analysis and Planning, NETL, 626 Cochrans Mill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, Phil Dipietro, Office of Sysems Analysis and Planning, NETL, 626 Cochrans Mill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, and Dale Keairns, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10016.
Technical and economic evaluation of an atmospheric-pressure solid oxide fuel cell capable of achieving strict carbon capture targets, while maintaining high system efficiency, is presented. In this design syngas is passed once-through the fuel cell stack; residual fuel in the anode gas is combusted using a slip stream of oxygen from the cryogenic air separation unit. The high quality heat from the combusted anode gas is combined with heat recovered from syngas cooling to feed a supercritical steam bottoming cycle. The fuel cell stack produces 80% of the power with the remainder coming from the steam cycle. Key fuel cell assumptions include: 0.7 volts, 500 mA/cm2 current density, and 85% fuel utilization in the fuel cell. The proposed system design has the following advantages (1) it achieves 46% coal conversion efficiency (HHV) without recycle or excessive heat recovery, (2) all the system components save the fuel cell stack are commercially available today, (3) it exhaust a compression-ready stream of 95% pure CO2, and (4) it allows capture and sequestration of nearly 100% of the carbon in the coal feedstock.