FUEL CELL-BASED PROCESS FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC POWER

摘要

The present invention relates to a process for generating electricity with a solid oxide fuel cell system with low carbon dioxide emissions. A liquid hydrocarbon feed is cracked in a first reaction zone, and fed as a gaseous feed to a second reaction zone. The feed is steam reformed in the second reaction zone to provide a reformed product gas containing hydrogen. Hydrogen is separated from the reformed product gas and is fed as a fuel to the anode of a solid oxide fuel cell. Electricity is generated in the fuel cell by oxidizing the hydrogen in the fuel. An anode exhaust stream containing hydrogen and steam is fed back into the first reaction zone to provide heat to drive the endothermic reactions in the first and second reaction zones, and to recycle unused hydrogen back to the fuel cell. Carbon dioxide is produced in relatively small quantities in the process due to the thermal and electrical efficiency of the process.