Molten carbonate fuel cell system fed with biofuels for electricity production

This study investigates on the efficiency of integrated reformer-MCFC system. Performancesof a Ni catalyst working under steam reforming conditions of three different biofuels(biogas, ethanol and glycerol) are experimentally evaluated. Reformers outlet streamwere applied as fuel for a MCFC stack in order to estimate the total integrated systemefficiencies.It is found that the large amount of heat (20å4% of the inlet fuel e LHV basis) isemployed for the reforming of the biofuel during the heating phase of inlet stream to thereforming operative temperature. Moreover, among the examined biofuels the highestamount of externally supplied energy (~79% of the inlet fuel e LHV basis) is wasted in thefuel processor unit for the steam reforming of ethanol, mostly due to the high amount ofthe water required (S/C ¼ 4.2 mol/mol). Finally, it is also found that the combined biogasreformer-MCFC system is exhibited the highest electrical efficiency (76%).