Assessment of a coal-gasification fuel-cell system for utility application. Final report

Technical Report · Sat May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1982

OSTI ID:5342817

Cronin, P G; Murphy, A J; Newton, R J; Wagner, E S

The purpose of this scoping study was to define and assess the technical and economic feasibility of a coal gasification-advanced phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant for electric utility application. The system design criteria selected resulted in a modular, relatively small sized power plant that could be configured with a basic building block of appoximately 11 MW. A range of coals and lignite was evaluated as the basic feedstock for a low-Btu fixed-bed conventional air-blown coal gasifier. The system included gas processing, cleanup, compression and delivery of sulfur-free hydrogen-rich gas to an advanced phosphoric acid fuel cell. Equipment erection and operating costs, in 1981 dollars, were solicited from American industry for all process sections. The plant was designed and evaluated on the basis of low capital cost, lowest overall heat rate and, as far as possible, with off-the-shelf technology. A 44 MW lignite example plant utilizing the basic building block concept was defined and evaluated for Lincoln, Nebraska, as an example site. The plant was configured in five basic configurations covering all reasonable schemes for utilizing byproduct tar/oil and waste heat. The all electric plant configuration provided an overall system heat rate of 10,330 Btu/kWh, a total erected capital cost including startup and contingency of $1291/kW (constant 1981 dollars), and a calculated electric busbar cost of 52.9 mills/kWh. The plant can be constructed in less than two years, has been designed to meet all Federal emission standards and is well suited for either base load or intermediate load utility application.

• Research Organization: Kinetics Technology International Corp., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5342817
• Report Number(s): EPRI-EM-2387; ON: DE82903667
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
296001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Electric Power Generation-- (-1989)
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300500* -- Fuel Cells
BROWN COAL
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COAL
COAL GASIFICATION PLANTS
COST
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL CELL POWER PLANTS
FUELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INORGANIC ACIDS
LIGNITE
MATERIALS
PHOSPHORIC ACID
POWER GENERATION
POWER PLANTS
PUBLIC UTILITIES
SYNTHETIC FUELS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT