A novel MCFC hybrid power generation process using solar parabolic dish thermal energy

Abstract

In this paper, a novel molten carbonate fuel cell hybrid power generation process with using solar parabolic dish thermal energy is proposed. The process contains MCFC, Oxy-fuel and Rankine power generation cycles. The Rankine power generation cycles utilized various types of working fluid to emphasize taking advantage of the cycles in different thermodynamic conditions. The required hot and cold energies are provided from solar dish parabolic thermal hot and liquefied natural gas (LNG) cold energies, respectively. The carbon dioxide (CO2) from MCFC effluent stream is captured from the process at liquid state. The process total heat integrated and in this regards, no need to any hot and cold external sources with the net electrical power generation. The energy and exergy analysis are conducted to determine the approaches to improve the process performance. This integrated structure consumed 2.30 × 106 kg h−1 of air and 2.67 × 106 kg h−1 of LNG to generate 292597 kW of net power. The products of this integrated structure are 6.25 × 104 kg h−1 of condensates, 183 kg h−1 of water vapor, 2.20 × 106 kg h−1 of MCFC effluent stream, 2.60 × 106 kg h−1 of natural gas and 1.10 × 105 kg h−1 of CO2 in liquid state. The presented new integrated structure has overall thermal efficiency of 73.14% and total exergy efficiency of 63.19%. Also, sensitivity analysis is performed for determination of the process key parameters which affected the process operating performance.