SOFC power plant with circulating fluidized bed gasifier

Abstract

Coal is used all over the world to meet the energy needs of industry and housing and communal services. The main requirements of coal using are environmental safety and efficiency. Increasing these parameters can be realized with the combination of a gasifier and fuel cells. The paper includes a variant of the thermal scheme of the power plant, which uses coal as a fuel, with its further gasification and conversion into electrical energy in a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks. The developed scheme differs from traditional circuits by using a gasifier with an inhibited circulating fluidized bed (ICFB). In addition, the anode-off gases are used in the combustion chamber of the gasifier to maintain endothermic gasification reactions. This technologies combination allows increasing the energy system efficiency. The paper also includes the results of tests of an ICFB gasifier and analyze the available electrical power of the SOFC stacks. Analysis dependence EMF from the produced generator gas composition showed no significant effect on the available power of the electrochemical generator. Developed scheme allow excluding from the process the gas cleaning from tar after gasifier, which allowed to increase the efficiency and reduce the metal capacity of the developed equipment. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2018.