Landfill gas cleanup for carbonate fuel cell power generation. CRADA final report

摘要

The overall objective of the work reported here was to evaluate the extent to which conventional contaminant removal processes could be combined to economically reduce contaminant levels to the specifications for carbonate fuel cells. The technical effort was conducted by EPRI, consultant David Thimsen, Kaltec of Minnesota, Energy Research Corporation (ERC) and Interpoll Laboratories. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) made available two test skids originally used to test an ERC 30 kW carbonate fuel cell at the Destec Coal Gasification Plan in Plaquemine, LA. EPRI's carbonate fuel cell pilot plant was installed at the Anoka County Regional Landfill in Ramsey, Minnesota. Additional gas cleaning equipment was installed to evaluate a potentially inexpensive, multi-stage gas cleaning process to remove sulfur and chlorine in the gas to levels acceptable for long-term, economical carbonate fuel cell operation. The pilot plant cleaned approximately 970,000 scf (27,500 Nm(sup 3)) of gas over 1,000 hours of operation. The testing showed that the process could achieve the following polished gas concentrations. Less than 80 ppbv hydrogen sulfide; less than 1 ppmv (the detection limit) organic sulfur; less than 300 ppbv hydrogen chloride; less than 20--80 ppbv of any individual chlorined hydrocarbon; and 1.5 ppm sulfur dioxide. These were the detection limits of the analytical procedures employed. It is probable that the actual concentrations are below these analytical limits.