Potential of molten carbonate fuel cells to reduce the carbon footprint of large reciprocating engines

摘要

Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells are an efficient solution to capture carbon dioxide emitted by conventional power plants operating on fossil-fuels. With respect to the currently available technologies (e.g. amine-based chemical absorption), which need significant amounts of heat and electricity to be operated, MCFCs are regarded as active capture systems as they capture CO_2 while generating electricity (of course, as long as fuel is provided). This happens thanks to the transport of CO_2 from cathode to anode during the cell normal operation. This work compares chemical and MCFC-based CO_2 capture technologies when applied to a natural gas reciprocating engine. The analysis shows that, even if the capture efficiency of MCFCs is lower than that of conventional technologies, the much lower (even negative) parasitic losses of the former yield a significant advantage from an energy-management standpoint.