Title:
Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells Fed with Biogas
Author(s):
Zaza, F., Paoletti, C., LoPresti, R., Simonetti, E., Pasquali, M.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Nowadays renewable and sustainable energy sources are taken in consideration to overcome problems such as energy security and climate change associated with fossil fuel. Drivers for bioenergy technologies development are environmental and socioeconomic politics. Indeed biomass has a carbon neutral life cycle and promotes climate change benefits that can be realized through reduction of GHG emissions. Furthermore a sustainable energy crops production, which does not compete with the use of land and water for food production, can have a positive impact toward food security because promote rural development providing energy access to remote communities and creating employment. Finally bioenergy guarantee energy security because it promotes the energy supplies diversification and the reduction of dependency on a few exporters of oil and natural gas. Fuel cells play a key role in this context because they are able to overcome the issue related to low energy contents of the biomass due to their high efficiency and environmental sustainability. High temperature fuel cells, such as molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), are particularly suitable for bioenergy production not only for their highest energy efficiency due to the cogeneration of electricity and heat, but also for their potentiality to be fed with light hydrocarbons fuels such as methane. Biogas, whose components are methane and carbon dioxide mainly, is suitable fuel for MCFC because methane can be transformed to hydrogen by internal reforming, carbon dioxide prevents electrolyte losses and carbon monoxide is both a fuel by itself and a hydrogen supplier by water gas shift reaction. Unfortunately carbon monoxide can affect cell performance by carbon particles formations plugging the pores of the electrode. Also biogas contains other harmful biomass processing byproducts affecting cell performances. Among them, hydrogen sulfide is the most important because is able to poison the cell at low ppm levels.
Keywords:
bioenergy, biogas, combined heat and power generation (CHP), fuel cell
Topic:
Fuels from biomass
Subtopic:
Production, supply and use of gaseous biofuels
Event:
18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
VP3.4.5
Pages:
1816 - 1821
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-56-1
ISBN-10:
88-89407-56-5
Paper DOI:
10.5071/18thEUBCE2010-VP3.4.5
Price:
FREE
