Ecologic and sustainable objective thermodynamic evaluation of molten carbonate fuel cell-supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle hybrid system

Abstract

In last decade, there has been increasing interest about fuel cell-heat engine or refrigeratorhybrid systems. Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) provides an opportunity to be used in ahybrid system because of high temperature heat obtained from the system. Brayton cyclesmay be an alternative to use with MCFC as bottom cycle. In this paper,eMCFCesuper-critical CO2(SCO2) Brayton cycle hybrid heat engine is investigated as a promising powergeneration option. SCO2Brayton cycle is chosen because of some advantages like higherefficiency comparing with conventional (air) Brayton cycle. This hybrid system is investi-gated ecological criteria involving ecological function and exergetic sustainability index aswell as basic thermodynamic parameters. Results are obtained numerically and perfor-mance limits are tried to define for designing more environmental friendly system.