A proposed molten carbonate fuel cell power plant design, intended for commercial production by the end of the 1990s and developed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Gas Research Institute, and Energy Research Corporation, has been analyzed with exergy and pinch analysis. The commercial production units, targeted for dispersed power generation markets, are based on an existing demonstration molten carbonate fuel cell power plant design which was demonstrated from 1996–1997. Exergy analysis of the commercial plant design shows the overall, second-law system efficiency to be 53 percent. The principal inefficiency, 17 percent of the total, lies in the catalytic combustor. Another major inefficiency is the stack loss, 14 percent. Heat transfer accounts for approximately 6 percent of the loss. System reconfigurations, incorporating a steam cycle with reheat (System I) and a gas turbine cycle (System II), both with revised heat exchanger networks, for significant improvement are proposed and evaluated. The second-law system efficiency is raised to 66 percent in System I and to 70 percent for System II.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Topics:
Exergy analysis, Molten carbonate fuel cells, Power stations, Cycles, Power station design, System efficiency, Combustion chambers, Energy generation, Exergy, Gas turbines, Gaseous fuels research, Heat exchangers, Heat transfer, Pinch effect, Plant design, Steam
1.
Dunbar
W. R.
, and
Lior
N.
,
1994
, “
Sources of Combustion Irreversibility
,”
Combustion Science and Technology
, Vol.
103
, pp.
41
–
61
.
2.
El-Wakil, M. M., 1984, Powerplant Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
3.
EPRI TR-102931, 1993, “Applications of Carbonate Fuel Cells to Electric Power Systems,” prepared by Fluor Daniel for the Electric Power Research Institute, Final Report.
4.
Kinoshita, K., McLarnon, F. R., and Cairns, E. J., 1988, Fuel Cells: A Handbook, DOE/METC-88/6096, prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, Morgantown, WV.
5.
Linnhoff, B., and Flower, J. R., 1978, “Synthesis of Heat Exchanger Networks,” AIChE Journal, Vol. 24, No. 4, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, NY.
6.
Linnhoff, B., 1982, User Guide on Process Integration for the Efficient Use of Energy, Pergamon Press, New York, NY.
7.
Lobachyov
K. V.
, and
Richter
H. J.
,
1997
, “
Addition of Highly Efficient Bottoming Cycles for the Nth Generation Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Power Plant
,”
ASME JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY
, Vol.
119
, pp.
103
–
108
.
8.
Moran, M. J., and Shapiro, H. N., 1992, Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics 2d Edition, Wiley, New York, NY.
9.
Moran, M. J., 1989, Availability Analysis, ASME Press, New York, NY.
10.
Rodriguez, L., 1980, “Calculation of Available Energy Quanties,” Thermodynamics: Second Law Analysis, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 122, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.
11.
Williams, K. R., 1966, An Introduction to Fuel Cells, Elsevier Publishing Company, New York, NY.
12.
Shinoki, T., Miyazaki, M., Okada, T., Ide, H., and Matsumoto, S., 1992, “Development of Indirect Internal Reforming Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Stack,” Proceedings, 27th IECEC. Vol. 3.
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 1999
 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
You do not currently have access to this content.