Fuel cell integrated carbon negative power generation from biomass

Biomass powered fuel-cell based power generation system with carbon capture. [Display omitted] •The conceptualization of a novel system consisting of a steam gasification facility, fuel-cell modules, and organic Rankine cycle.•Detailed investigation of the steam gasification facility for hydrogen rich syngas production.•Results shows up to 99.2% CO2 was capture using molten carbonate fuel cell.•Thermodynamic, economic and life cycle carbon emission analyses of the novel system. Combining biomass-fuelled power plant with carbon capture and storage allows CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere, considering biomass a carbon–neutral fuel. In the present study, a biomass-based CO2 negative system has been proposed, which combines a biomass steam gasification facility with a solid oxide fuel cell, a post-combustion carbon capture facility with a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), and waste heat recovery using the organic Rankine cycle. A techno-economic analysis of two scenarios, namely a) with MCFC-based CO2 capture and b) without CO2 capture, was conducted. Integration of MCFC and carbon capture system was able to capture 99.2% of CO2. It was found that the energy efficiency of the system was decreased by 9.43%, with the incorporation of CO2 capture facilities. Furthermore, exergy efficiencies for the configuration with CO2 capture and without CO2 capture are calculated as 62% and 70.22%, respectively. The economic analysis reveals that the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for the configuration with CO2 capture and without CO2 capture is estimated to be 0.062 $/kWh and 0.052 $/kWh, respectively. Finally, life cycle CO2 emissions for both the scenarios have been performed, and the analysis reveals that the proposed CO2 negative system is able to capture 1100 tonnes of CO2 per year.