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Description
The proposed project is focused on research and development oriented at constructing a Carbon Capture and Storage/Utilization (CCS) system based on molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) operating at flue gas stream, producing electricity and gas “Sabatier ready” for power-to-gas applications. Such a unit can be the key component of energy storage systems which realize the power-to-gas concept. In such systems the excess electricity from intermittent sources (wind and solar) is used to generate synthetic fuels. Additionally, MCFC aid in increasing the flexibility of operation of conventional power units, especially in the light of the expected frequent shutdowns as centally disposed units. Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells offer several advantages over amine installations which has an established position in the market. Project focuses on the concept development, design, construction and experimental studies of a prototype 10 kW-class system with MCFC stack, which exhibits carbon capture in excess of 90% for coal fired power in MCFC (with negative energy penalty –4 MW/kg), resulting in the additional power of approximately 30%. The MCFC stack has a modular design which makes it possible to integrate several of such units to built larger CCS systems. Carbon Dioxide can be later re-use for production of synthetic fuels using excess electricity from intermittent sources allows integration of the electrical and gas grids (sector coupling) which results in higher flexibility and security of supply of energy. Thanks to that the gas grid becomes energy storage systems. Importance of this aspect has to be noted with respect to large scale CCS. MCFC-based systems are built, contrary to other fuel cells which operated only in sub-kW scale.