電力およびバイオガス改質システムにおけるMCFC統合のクロスシステム比較技術経済・環境評価

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a unified techno-economic and environmental comparison of MCFC integration across different energy systems, useful for further optimization and system design studies.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights into the cost-effectiveness of MCFC-based carbon capture and biogas upgrading, informing investment decisions in power and renewable gas projects.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the potential of MCFC technology for achieving net-zero targets and the cost thresholds that could make it economically viable, relevant for policy support and funding priorities.

Achieving net-zero or carbon-negative energy systems requires technologies capable of generating power while capturing or utilising CO2 without significant efficiency losses. Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) offer such potential, yet their techno-economic competitiveness across different energy systems remains insufficiently quantified. Beyond conventional power-plant integration, this study explores a new application of MCFCs in biogas upgrading, where their electrochemical CO2-transfer capability is harnessed to purify raw biogas to near-pipeline-quality biomethane (BM) while simultaneously generating electricity. A process-simulation-informed, bottom-up techno-economic and environmental assessment was conducted to evaluate MCFC integration within natural gas combined cycle (NGCC), integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and biogas-upgrading systems, each operated with air- or O2-fed cathodes. Results show that integrating MCFCs into different plant types significantly affects both plant efficiency and CO2 avoidance cost, with the air-fed NGCC–MCFC configuration demonstrating the most favourable techno-economic balance, while the O2-fed IGCC–MCFC system provides superior environmental performance in centralised applications. In decentralised settings, MCFC-assisted biogas upgrading can achieve cost-neutral or revenue-positive operation when stack costs fall below 1000 $·kW−1, highlighting its potential as a self-sustaining CO2-removal route. These findings establish a unified cross-system performance map identifying where MCFCs are most competitive across centralised and decentralised energy systems, highlighting their potential as dual-function units for power decarbonisation and renewable-gas production.

• base https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/48905/first seen 2026-09-01 12:00:20