Novel integration of molten carbonate fuel cell stacks in a biomass-based Rankine cycle power plant with CO₂ separation: A techno-economic and environmental study

A novel integration of molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) stacks in a biomass-based Rankine cycle power plant with CO₂ separation has been proposed, and techno-economic and environmental analyses have been performed for the plant configuration. Both a biomass gasifier and a biomass combustion fluidized boiler (CFB) have been considered for the proposed plant, which has a unique configuration of MCFC stacks placed in the back-pass of the CFB to achieve an efficient plant configuration. Parametric variations of the key performance parameters with varying input variables have been observed, and a best-case operating condition has been identified from the parametric study. It is observed that the proposed plant can produce 12.645 MW of power with 60.22 % electrical efficiency at a unit electricity cost of 0.09497 $/kWh at best-case operating condition. Moreover, 137701 tons/year of CO₂ cutting is observed at the best-case condition, which results in 20.66 million $/year of total environmental benefit. Cost sensitivity suggests that the plant can yield a unit electricity cost of 0.03314 $/kWh at the best economic conditions, and the payback analysis outlines that the plant can recover its initial investment in 3.467 years when there is a 50 % capital subsidy.