Fuel cell power plant integrated systems evaluation. Final report

Technical Report · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6611751· OSTI ID:6611751

Bonds, T. L.; Dawes, M. H.; Schnacke, A. W.; Spradlin, L. W.

Carbonate fuel cell power plants are attractive candidates for future power generation applications. One application of these plants would be central stations (675 MW) fueled by coal. Another would be small dispersed generation plants (5 MW) fueled by oil, probably with reject heat utilization. The activities conducted to define power plant configurations for these two applications are reported. Plant capital costs and cost of electricity were evaluated for both plants. Performance sensitivity studies have led to an improvement in plant cycle efficiency and have considered the important design constraints. Parametric variations and the impact on the plant and components are discussed. Alternate oil-fired cycles as well as several alternate coal gasifiers are examined to show effects on plant performance. A steam injection and anode recirculation study was also performed. A cost sensitivity evaluation was performed for both plants for variations in design parameters and/or design assumptions on the cost of electricity. Through this work, the economic attractiveness of the coal-fired plant is confirmed, and a scenario in which the dispersed oil-fired plant with reject heat recovery is established. Performance for the coal-fired plant (6669 Btu/kWh) exceeds the study goal (6800 Btu/kWh) significantly, and the oil-fired plant performance (7627 Btu/kWh) is very close to the study goal (7500 Btu/kWh). The development of a finite slice computer model of the carbonate fuel cell is reported and an initial parametric cell and plant performance study was performed using the model. Preliminary subsystem description sheets and plant layout arrangements are presented.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., Schenectady, NY (USA). Energy Systems Programs Dept.
• OSTI ID: 6611751
• Report Number(s): EPRI-EM-1670
• 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
300501* -- Fuel Cells-- Design & Development
CAPITALIZED COST
COAL FUEL CELLS
COAL GASIFICATION
COGENERATION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COST
DESIGN
DEUS
DIAGRAMS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ELECTRICITY
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ENERGY
ENERGY RECOVERY
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EVALUATION
FLUID INJECTION
FUEL CELL POWER PLANTS
FUEL CELLS
GASIFICATION
HEAT
HEAT RECOVERY
HIGH-TEMPERATURE FUEL CELLS
HYDROCARBON FUEL CELLS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MOLTEN CARBONATE FUEL CELLS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PERFORMANCE
POWER GENERATION
POWER PLANTS
POWER RANGE 1-10 MW
POWER RANGE 100-1000 MW
RECOVERY
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SIMULATION
STEAM GENERATION
STEAM INJECTION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
WASTE HEAT
WASTES