An integrated system combining chemical looping hydrogen generation process and solid oxide fuel cell/gas turbine cycle for power production with CO2 capture

In this paper, the solid oxide fuel cell/gas turbine (SOFC/GT) cycle is integrated with coal gasification and chemical looping hydrogen generation (CLHG) for electric power production with CO2 capture. The CLHG-SOFC/GT plant is configurated and the schematic process is modeled using Aspen Plus (R) software. Syngas, produced by coal gasification, is converted to hydrogen with CO2 separation through a three-reactors CLHG process. Hydrogen is then fueled to SOFC for power generation. The unreacted hydrogen from SOFC burns in a combustor and drives gas turbine. The heat of the gas turbine exhaust stream is recovered in HRSG for steam bottoming cycle. At a system pressure of 20 bar and a cell temperature of 900 degrees C, the CLHG-SOFC/GT plant has a net power efficiency of 43.53% with no CO2 emissions. The hybrid power plant performance is attractive because of high energy conversion efficiency and zero-CO2-emission. Key parameters that influence the system performance are also discussed, including system operating pressure, cell temperature, fuel utilization factor, steam reactor temperature, CO2 expander exhaust pressure and inlet gas preheating. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.