Coal gasification integration with solid oxide fuel cell and chemical looping combustion for high-efficiency power generation with inherent CO2 capture

Since solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) produce electricity with high energy conversion efficiency, and chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a process for fuel conversion with inherent CO2 separation, a novel combined cycle integrating coal gasification, solid oxide fuel cell, and chemical looping combustion was configured and analyzed. A thermodynamic analysis based on energy and exergy was performed to investigate the performance of the integrated system and its sensitivity to major operating parameters. The major findings include that (1) the plant net power efficiency reaches 49.8% with ∼100% CO2 capture for SOFC at 900°C, 15bar, fuel utilization factor=0.85, fuel reactor temperature=900°C and air reactor temperature=950°C, using NiO as the oxygen carrier in the CLC unit. (2) In this parameter neighborhood the fuel utilization factor, the SOFC temperature and SOFC pressure have small effects on the plant net power efficiency because changes in pressure and temperature that increase the power generation by the SOFC tend to decrease the power generation by the gas turbine and steam cycle, and v.v.; an advantage of this system characteristic is that it maintains a nearly constant power output even when the temperature and pressure vary. (3) The largest exergy loss is in the gasification process, followed by those in the CO2 compression and the SOFC. (4) Compared with the CLC Fe2O3 and CuO oxygen carriers, NiO results in higher plant net power efficiency. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first analysis synergistically combining in a hybrid system: (1) coal gasification, (2) SOFC, and (3) CLC, which results in a system of high energy efficiency with full CO2 capture, and advances the progress towards the world’s critically needed approach to “clean coal”.