The Integration of Atmospheric Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells With Gas Turbine and Steam Cycles

Abstract

The exploitation of the high-temperature-fuel-cell technology, actually being developed by many companies involved in the gas turbine market, could allow outperforming performance of conventional prime movers based upon fossil fuel combustion. This paper investigates the integration of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) working at atmospheric pressure with some representative cycle configurations based either on steam and gas turbine cycles. Detailed energy balances of the most promising cycle configurations are presented; fuel cell and conventional components working parameters and technological issues are described and discussed. It is shown that efficiencies well above 60% can be achieved by combining MCFCs either with recuperative gas turbine or steam cycles.