Analysis of pollutant emissions from cogeneration and district heating systems aimed to a feasibility study of MCFC technology for carbon dioxide separation as retrofitting of existing plants

The growing world consumption of energy from fossil fuels has the side effect of increasing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, causing damage respectively at global and local levels. The combination of high temperature fuel cells with traditional energy production systems seems to be one of the possible solutions to this environmental problem. In this context, molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) are the only fuel cells which may work as CO2 concentrators/separators, if fed by the exhaust gases of a power plant. This paper investigates the chemical composition of flue gases from existing cogeneration plants, in order to perform a feasibility study of the MCFC technology for CO2 separation. For this purpose, a model of a MCFC using as input the exhaust gas of a combined heat and power plant has been developed and analyzed. The aim of the whole study is to identify the optimal operating conditions of the cell, to achieve the maximum CO2 removal efficiency.

► We measured the flue gas composition from two district heating plants.
► We modeled a capture systems with molten carbonate fuel cells based on measured flue gas composition.
► Carbon capture is highly efficient with MCFC.