Biomass-Based Fuel Cell Power Plants: Evaluation of Novel Reactors and Process Designs

This contribution focuses on the model-based system design and the systemwide evaluation of novel reactor concepts for power plants which combine gasification of wood and conversion of its gaseous product in fuel cells. System design was carried out with the help of a model library, which contains models of all reactor units under consideration. Each system was subject to several feasibility checks, and optimization of the most important control parameters was performed. Simulation results show that high temperature gas purification units and high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells have strong advantages over their classical counterparts with respect to heat integration and electrical system efficiency. Systems with high and low temperature fuel cells were studied separately, but they show that a combination of both types of fuel cells in a single plant offers the highest efficiency and attractive flexibility with respect to electricity and heat production.